


Blank Canvas

by MercuryA2000



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Novelization, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pokemon Journey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:02:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 75,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28396605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercuryA2000/pseuds/MercuryA2000
Summary: Most people apply and get the right to obtain pokemon at age 15. From there they go on their journey, or get one to help with everyday life, or even just get one as a pet.Red studied and worked to pass the tests needed to be an Advanced Start Trainer and set out as soon as possible at ten years old. He has one goal in mind: Beat the league and become a champion of Kanto.A novelization of Red's journey that adds worldbuilding and some more logic to the pokemon world.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. A Boy from Pallet

Red had been up for an hour by the time his alarm finally went off. He grabbed his things and took the steps two at a time, before stopping halfway down to run back up. He'd never grabbed the potion he ordered on Monday! He stuffed it in his bag and ran back down to the living room as his mom laughed.  
"I know all boys leave home someday, but that isn't happening until after breakfast, ok young man?""  
Red nodded and dropped his bag next to his seat, already halfway to the kitchen to help cook when he noticed the plates sat on the counter.  
"I figured you'd be up early." His mom said with a wink as he grabbed them and went back to the table. "I'm surprised you didn't smell it upstairs." He hadn't. If he did Red probably would've come down sooner. The two ate in silence for a few minutes before his mom started talking.  
"Samuel said you could stop by some time after 8, right?" Red nodded, glancing at the clock. It was only 7, but gramps was probably already in his lab by now. He probably wouldn't mind if Red was just a little early. "You sure you have everything? Spare clothes? A water cleaning kit? Your tent?" Red nodded along. He'd already checked his bag for everything twice this morning alone. "I know you'll be fine. I just can't help but worry. You and Blue are only 10. Just promise me you'll stay safe all right? No going off the standard routes." Red nodded, finishing the last of his food before grabbing his plate. He looked over and realized his mom had barely taken a bite. "I'll take care of it honey." She glanced at the clock, "I don't think you could stand staying another half hour could you? Go ahead. Maybe one of his assistants will let you help out while you wait. Red nodded, before grabbing his bag and giving his mom a big hug.  
He ran to the door, and just before he ran out, he stopped and looked back. "I love you mom."  
"I love you too Red. Good luck."  
Red nodded, before shutting the door and running through the streets of Pallet towards the lab. He stopped just out front, panting heavily, before opening the door and heading in.  
"Red?" Mr. Nishida said, glancing over at the boy as soon as he came in. "The professor said you weren't going to be here for another half hour." Red looked down at that, and Mr. Nishida just laughed, "I told him you woke up earlier than Blue. He left about fifteen minutes ago. Maybe you can go track him down." Red nodded, before turning and heading back outside. Where would Gramps have gone? Red started heading north, looking around for the old man. He didn't see him anywhere. Did Gramps... Red glanced up towards route 1. He did like to take walks up to Viridian sometimes. Maybe he'd just gone part of the way? Red edged closer, glancing around for the professor.  
"Hey! Wait!" Red jumped spinning around to see Professor Oak running towards him as fast as he could, "You know it's not safe up there Red! What were you doing?"  
"Looking for you." He said quietly.  
Professor Oak sighed, "I was just grabbing something I left at home. Come on let's go head to the lab." Red nodded, following behind as they walked back through Pallet Town. Red nodded at Mr. Nishida and the other assistants as they walked through the lab, towards where Blue was impatiently tapping his foot, right next to a table with three pokeballs sat on it.  
"Come on Gramps! I'm ready to get my pokemon!"  
Professor Oak laughed, shaking his head at the two of them, "Did you two ever decide who would pick their starter first?"  
"We said whoever got a higher score on the last trainer's test, didn't we Red?" Red nodded, "Then I guess it's gonna be me." Blue said, "There's no way you topped a 97." Red just smiled, before pulling a piece of paper from his pocket and handing it to the professor.  
Professor Oak unfolded it, before looking down at Blue, "Looks like you're going second."  
"What? No way!" Blue grabbed the results sheet and stared at it for a moment, before glaring at Red, "How'd you get a 98?!' Red shrugged, walking over to the table and looking down at them. He already knew which one he was going to pick. Red reached for the pokeball with a little red sticker on it, before turning to the professor and smiling.  
"So you want Charmander?" Red nodded, taking the pokeball and throwing it up. In a flash of light, the fire type lizard appeared, landing in Red's arms and beaming up at him.  
"Cha!"  
"And I'm taking this one." Blue said, walking over and plucking a pokeball off the table.  
"Squirtle!" Blue looked at the pokemon he released onto the table, before smirking over at Red.  
"Heh. Mine looks stronger, doesn't he?" Red rolled his eyes, setting charmander down so that he could return it.  
"Let's go transfer ownership of these two over.." Professor Oak said, but before he even started to move Blue yelled.  
"Wait! Red! Let's check out our pokémon! Come on, I'll take you on!"  
"Blue we need to-" Professor Oak looked at the two of them, before sighing, "Oh all right. You can use one of the fields out back. Blue returned his squirtle, and the two followed Professor Oak out the back door into the yard. Red and Blue walked over to the closet 'Arena' (really it was just a chalk outline) and took their positions.  
Professor Oak stood to the side and cleared his throat "This will be a one on one battle between Red Kiro in the Red corner and Blue Oak in the Blue corner! The battle will continue until one pokemon is defeated! Blue trainer, are you ready?"  
"Of course." Blue said, holding up his pokeball."  
"Red trainer ready?" Red adjusted his hat, before looking across the field and meeting his Rivals eyes. He lifted his pokeball and nodded.  
"Let the battle begin!"  
Red and Blue threw their pokeballs at the same time, and for a moment, neither moved. Charmander and Squirtle locked eyes, slowly circling each other as they waited for their trainers first ever commands.  
"Tackle!" Blue shouted.  
"Right and scratch as it passes." Red said. Charmander jumped to the right, but he wasn't quite fast enough to hit the turtle as it went past. "Follow it."  
"Hide in your shell!" Squirtle skidded to a stop, and that moment's delay was long enough for Charmander to get a hit in.  
"Fall back." Charmander took a few steps backwards, growling at squirtle.  
"Tsk, of course you wouldn't fall for that huh Red? Squirtle! Pop out and make some distance!" Squirtle's head popped out of his shell, and he seemed almost glad to get away from the still growling Charmander. "Squirtle, shoot it with water!"  
"Get away Charmander." Charmander turned and sprinted back towards Red as Squirtle took a breath.  
"Squir-TLE!" And all that came out was a small little stream that barely went anywhere.  
"Looks like we'll have to work on that then." Blue said with an awkward laugh, "Start getting closer!"  
"You too Charmander."  
"Back in your shell! Let him come to us!"  
"Get behind it." Charmander slowly circled Squirtle, growling all the while, before reaching forward to scratch at it.  
"Now!" And was rewarded with a swift tackle to the chin.  
"Charmander be careful."  
The battle stalled. Every now and then Charmander would step forward, only to bounce off Squirtle's shell and sometimes get a tackle for the trouble. Red watched them repeat that pattern a few times, "Charmander, get over here." Red's voice lowered as his pokemon approached, "I want you to pretend to scratch it ok? And when he tries to hit you grab his tail and don't let it go. Can you do that?"  
"Cha!"  
"What are you planning, Red?" Red just shook his head. "Well, it doesn't matter! There's nothing you can do to get past Squirtle's defense!"  
"Scratch." Charmander ran forward, and predictably, Squirtle lunged out to punish it.  
"Squir?!" This time, he found his tail in the firm grip of Charmander instead.  
"Fire." Red said. Charmander took a breath, and breathed what was more akin to hot air than anything else on Squirtle's tail.  
"Break free!" The two rolled around, Charmander hardly ever slipping, and when he did grabbing on again before Squirtle could hide his tail.  
"Squirtle is unable to battle!"  
"What do you mean gramps! He's still going!"  
"And what would be the point Blue? He can't shake Charmander. If this keeps going all you’re going to do is delay your journey a day while he rests."  
"Fine fine." Blue said, returning his pokemon, "Next time, we won't lose will we Squirtle?"  
Red returned Charmander as well, looking down at the ball. "Thank you."  
"Now that you two have that out of your system, can we properly register your pokemon?" Red nodded and Blue shrugged, and both followed the professor back inside. He brought them upstairs to his office. The room was fairly big, and it needed to be considering the giant red dog curled up inside. Arcanine peaked its head up as the three entered, before laying back down.  
"Now, since you won your battle Red, come here." Red stopped long enough to reach over and scratch Arcanine's head, before sitting down in front of the professor's desk. Professor Oak sat at his computer for a minute, before turning to Red, "I need your Trainer I.D." Red reached into his pocket and handed the card over. After typing for a second, Professor Oak said, "And now for Charmander's pokeball." Professor Oak set the pokeball down onto a scanner. After waiting for it to load he punched in a code and slid the keyboard over to Red. "And now for your Secret ID." Red punched in the code, and after a moment, the professor handed him back his things. "And with that, Charmander is officially yours." He said with a smile. "While I register Blue's Squirtle, why don't you head down and heal Charmander up?" Red nodded, and headed downstairs. He put Charmander's pokeball in the healing machine and set it to start.  
"Charmander?" Red looked up to see Mr. Nishida standing in front of him. "It was always my favorite too." Red smiled at him as the machine beeped, and he grabbed his pokemon and put in the little holder on his side. "Good luck on your journey Red. We're going to miss having you around the lab."  
Red paused for a moment, before softly saying, "I'll miss you guys."  
Mr. Nishida smiled. "Have fun out there kid. Stay safe." Red nodded.  
"Hey Red!" Red turned to see Blue walk over, putting Squirtle's pokeball in the machine and turning it on, "Gramps has one more thing to say to us before we head out." He rolled his eyes, "Like we haven't heard it a hundred times already." Red laughed.  
"And is it really the same if you're just eavesdropping?" The professor in question called as he walked down the stairs, his hands behind his back.  
"No, but I wanna hurry up and get to Viridian! If we're lucky we'll have time to find some sparring partners before the gym closes for the day!"  
"Then I guess I'll keep it short." Professor Oak said with a laugh, before clearing his throat. "Welcome to the world of pokemon! As of today, the two of you are officially trainers! As Advanced Start Trainers, Oak Labs will provide the funding necessary to feed 6 pokemon each until you complete your first gym battle. Here." Professor Oak offered both his hands, one to each boy. In them, were 5 shrunken pokeballs, and a bright red device, "You are both being asked to take a Pokedex. It will gather data on any pokemon you encounter for me, and in exchange it will share what it knows with you. Keep it safe, and use it well." The professor flung his arms out to either side, "Your very own Pokémon legend is about to unfold! A world of dreams and adventures with Pokémon awaits!"  
Professor Oak smiled at the two, "And as family, I wish you both the best of luck on your journey's. Stay safe, and call if you need anything, even if it's just to help with homesickness. I'll always be here for you two, ok?"  
"You got it gramps." Blue said with a smile, "Have fun here at the lab, got it." Blue stretched, "It's time for me to head out. Smell ya later Gramps, Red." With that, Blue turned and ran out the door.  
"Don't forget Red. We may not be related, but you're still family. I'll always be here for you."  
Red looked down, adjusting his hat to cover his eyes. He stayed still for a moment, before nodding. Then, he turned and started out on his own journey.

______ 

Red waited until he'd made it out of Pallet before he sent out Charmander again.  
"Cha!" The little fire type said, looking up at Red.  
"Hey there little guy." Red said, kneeling down, "I'm Red, and I'm gonna be your trainer. I'm glad to finally meet you." Red and Blue weren't allowed to interact with the starter pokemon at the lab; they bonded too easily, so only Gramps and a couple of his head assistants were allowed to even see them.  
"Cha! Cha- Ard!" Charmander cried, its tail flame wavering as it spoke. That meant they were happy. Red smiled. "Now, let's see what's special about you, ok bud?" Charmander nodded, and Red took out his brand new pokedex.  
Charmander, the Lizard Pokemon. The flame on its tail can be used to gauge how healthy a Charmander is, and how it is feeling. Red already knew that. Let's see... Specific scan.  
Estimated level: 5  
Moves: Scratch, Growl  
Abilities: Blaze  
Gender: Male  
"So you're a boy huh?" Red said, and Charmander nodded. "Got it." Red put the pokedex away and stood up, "We're going to be heading up towards Viridian City. Do you want to walk with me?"  
"Cha!"  
Red nodded, "While we're walking, let's work on getting that ember attack going, ok?" Charmander threw a fist in the air. "Glad you're excited too. Ok Charmander, fire!" Charmander took a deep breath, and shot it out with a cry. Red could faintly see the air rippling, but nothing more than that. Charmander looked down at it and frowned. "It's all right Charmander. We've got plenty of time to figure that out. Why don't we try it again, ok?" Once more, Charmander took a breath, and tried to produce so much as a spark. Again, nothing. Charmander sighed, but with a little more encouragement from Red, kept on practicing as the two walked.  
Red meanwhile, couldn't stop himself from looking around. He'd been out on route 1 before, but always either in a car on the main path or with a trainer. Now HE was the trainer. Just the thought made him smile. Everything about the place just felt different. The air clearer, the colors brighter, even the sounds of wild pokemon seemed louder. Was that just because he'd never paid them any attention?  
"Tatata!" Red's eyes locked on the little purple pokemon that dashed in front of them. Before he could even tell Charmander to do anything, it lunged forward, slamming into Charmander and sending him rolling to the ground.  
"Charmander!" Charmander rolled back to his feet and growled at the rodent. "Fine, if it want's a fight how about we give it one. Charmander scratch it!" Charmander rushed forward, but the rattata jumped back. "Try to burn it!" Charmander took a breath and fired, but all that happened was a puff of hot air that the rattata ran right through to hit him again. Red grit his teeth. "Ok, when I say now, scratch it. Until then, growl, ok?"  
"Cha!" Charmander growled, and the rattata paused halfway through its next lunge. It tried to circle around Charmander towards Red, but Red circled with it, keeping his pokemon between the two. Finally, after an eternity, it committed to an attack.  
Wait for it...  
Wait for it...  
"Now!" Just before the rattata could hit him, Charmander's claw flung up and hit it in the belly, knocking it back and away. "Hurry, run up and ember!" Charmander only got a few steps in, before the Rattata turned and ran back into the thick grass. Charmander turned back to him, and Red beamed at the pokemon, "You did great Charmander!"  
"Cha!" It said, taking a few steps towards Red, before reaching down to its stomach, where a bruise was already forming from the Rattata's hit.  
"Hey, take it easy bud." Red reached into his bag and took out his potion. He sprayed it on Charmander, who sighed as it numbed the pain. "Why don't you wait in your pokeball, ok Charmander? So you can rest up." Charmander nodded, and Red pulled out his pokeball and returned him.

______

"Your charmander is in perfect health." Nurse Joy smiled at Red, and he nodded as he took the pokeball back. "Thank you for coming, we hope you have a great day." Red smiled back and nodded, before turning and leaving. Ok, Charmander was fine and the sun was still up. Hopefully he had enough time to visit the gym before it closed for the day. Red walked quickly through town, passing by an old man getting carried away by a much younger girl, who was saying her apologies to the small crowd he seemed to have been attracting. Red just shrugged and walked past, heading up to the big building in the north of the city. He waited outside for a moment, before opening the door. Immediately, the sounds of pokemon attacks and trainers yelling slammed into Red so much he almost flinched. After the initial shock however, he nodded and headed inside.  
"Sorry kid, the intro to training class is only on Tuesdays. Its at 3 anyway, so youda missed it anyway." Red turned to see a man who was probably in his early twenties leaned against a wall, watching the chaos of trainers. Red shook his head and showed Charmander's pokeball. "Oh you're one of them early starters are ya? Well the Boss's still not here. Somethin went wrong up in Victory Road and he had to go deal with it. Won't be here for a few days at least." Red shook his head. "Ain't here for a challenge? Then what are ya here for?" Red took a breath.  
"Advice. I'm on my way to Pewter."  
"Pewter? What, you trying to do the Kanto Circuit?" Red nodded, "Whatever you say kid. Lemme just tell you that most don't make it through that." Red knew that. "So is this your first visit to a gym." Nod. "Well I guess it's up to me to tell you how it works. Come on kid." The man kicked off the wall and started walking forward. "You can battle as much as you want, often as ya want. Only rule is you can't go bullying people and if we see you pushing your pokemon too far, we'll step in to stop ya, got it?" Red nodded. "Money matches are allowed, and so's just battling for fun. You make the rules. 'Fore you can battle the gym leader, you've gotta fight some of the gym trainers. Every gym's different, so if you wanted to fight the Boss, you'd have to fight 4 of us. Then we'll give you a time to come do the challenge. Pass and you go right into the leader fight. Make sense?" Nod. "Us gym trainers are here to help, so if you need any flag us down. We tend ta focus on the gym type, but especially us veterans know about others too, so don't worry. We've all got the badge somewhere on our clothes. usually our back." He pointed to a few random people, all with a green feather emblazoned somewhere on their clothes. "There's seminars and event's an stuff, so if you're sticking around near a gym look at what's coming up, got it?" Red nodded. "You don't talk much do ya kid?" Red bowed his head and shook it, but the man just shrugged. "Well, there's still another hour or so before I shut us down for the night. Do you want to go lookin' for someone you can train with, or do you want me to give you some advice?"  
"Advice." Red muttered. He took out Charmander's pokeball and released the pokemon. "We, we just started. I know care, not so much training."  
"Charmander eh? Anything specific you wanna learn?"  
Red thought for a moment. If they fought, he could learn how to call shots, how to predict things, they could get closer. The thing he was the most lost about was probably... "Move tutoring."  
The man let out a low whistle. "That's a tricky one all right. Most moves're different. For now, I can help get ya started on one, and show you the general. That work." Red nodded. "First off, you gotta be patient. Even regular moves like- does 'e know ember yet?" Red shook his head. "Like ember take some time. It's instinctual for 'em, but that don't make it easy. Hey Charmander, how far you got so far?"  
Charmander looked to Red, who nodded. It took a breath, and- hot aired... "Ain't surprising." The man said. "Now, with ember here you've gotta learn how to use fire at all. You've got a fire type so that'll be easier, but it's still got to learn how to call it out. Charmander, close your eyes and try to feel that fire in you. Get a real good feel for it, k? When you do, push it to your mouth and just hold it. Let it build a bit." Charmander closed his eyes. The three stood in silence for a while, Red saw a bit of smoke start leaking out of Charmander's mouth. Before he could do anything, Charmander's eyes flew open, smoke pouring out of his mouth as he coughed and hacked like Gary after he tried that enigma berry sauce.  
"Charmander!?" Red knelt down next to his starter, but didn't know what to do. After what felt like an eternity, Charmander took a breath and gave him a weak smile.  
"Cha..."  
"Even fire types can feel the burn kid. Don't worry, Charmander'll get used to it with practice. Once he can hold it in his mouth you can try ta figure out shooting the ember. From there its practice 'till the whole thing's effortless." Red nodded. "I'd recommend getting some Rawst berries if you can. Soothes it apparently."  
"Is... there anywhere around here I can get some?"  
"Best place in the region's Celadon if you wanna walk, but the store in town should have some. Just won't be as fresh."  
Red nodded. "Thank you." He said softly.  
"No prob kid. Now, if there's nothin else you need I'm gonna go back to watching the place. The Boss'll kill me if I let it get wrecked while he's gone. Good luck kid. Hopefully I'll see you back here for your eighth badge." He would. Red shook his head at the offer of more help, and waved the man off. Then, he let out a breath. That went about as well as it could’ve.  
"Hey Charmander. Do you want to keep trying with Ember, or should we look for someone to battle?" In response, Charmander closed his eyes and took a breath.  
It didn’t take quite as long to get smoke and another coughing fit, and after getting a drink of water, Charmander was ready to go another round.

Red honestly had no clue how much time had passed before he heard the man from before call out over the loudspeakers, "Finish up your battles! If you're still here in 15 minutes I'm sicking the Boss's retired mons on ya. Doesn't even use em for LLTs anymore cause they're too strong and too cranky!" Red laughed, and looked down at Charmander. His face was stained black from smoke, but he had a grin on his face as he held the smoke for the entire announcement, before letting it go and falling into one last coughing fit.  
"You're doing great Charmander. We'll get this in no time."  
"Ch-cha!" Charmander coughed the rest of the smoke out, before Red held up his pokeball. The fire type gratefully allowed himself to be returned.  
"Those of you wanting some late night food better hurry! Grocery store's closing in a half hour and pokemon center food sucks!" There was a collective laugh at that, along with a few 'here here's.' Red just nodded, making eye contact with the man and smiling, before he turned and headed out of the gym.  
There was a grocery store on the way to the pokemon center, luckily enough, so Red was able to get some Rawst berries and dinner for him and Charmander. Nurse Joy checked him into a room for the night, and he went up. Red washed Charmander’s face with a damp cloth before the two ate, and Charmander looked positively blissful as he ate a few Rawst Berries for dessert. After that, Red returned the fire type, got ready for bed, and fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

______ 

"Are you heading into Viridian Forest? It's a natural maze in there, so make sure you don't get lost, ok?" Red adjusted his hat and nodded at the nice lady who'd stopped him on the way out of the city. Red had prepared before heading over here. Potions, Antidotes, Food for him and Charmander, even some extra rawst berries so they could practice on ember while they were out here. He had everything he needed.  
After stepping into the forest proper, Red grabbed the pokeball at his side. "Charmander, come on out."  
"Cha!" Red smiled down at the little fire type, before nodding.  
"Let's go bud." Red turned and started walking deeper into the forest. Should he catch anything while he was here? He was allowed a full team after all. No, he should focus on Charmander for now. Maybe in a week or two he could come back if he wanted to catch anything else, but for now, just Charmander.  
"Hey you! You have a pokemon!" Red jumped and jerked his head to the right, where a boy probably his age was running up, a net trailing behind him. "Let's battle 'em!"  
Red looked down at Charmander, who nodded and stepped forward.  
"Great! Weedle! I choose you!" The boy threw a pokeball, which bounced once (Red winced) before a weedle appeared, looking around in confusion, before shaking its head. "Weedle, use poison sting!" The bug just turned and looked at him. Freshly caught?  
"Charmander, use scratch." Charmander ran forward and scratched at the bug, who cried out, before turning and jabbing its horn into Charmander.  
"Great job Weedle! Do it again!" The weedle instead elected to use string shot, sticking Charmander's legs to the floor. "That works too!"  
"Use your tail to burn it away." The weedle started coming closer, horn lowered. "Smack it away quick!" Slam! The weedle flew to the side, its side slightly burned by Charmander's tail.  
"Ah man. Weedle, you did great!" The boy returned the injured bug and took out another pokeball, "Let's go another round!" Red shrugged. Charmander looked fine. "Great! Go caterpie!" Caterpie looked less excited about this than weedle did, since it turned and hid in the grass behind Red. Red looked at the boy and raised an eyebrow. "Eheheh. I kinda just caught them. I just wanted to have a quick battle before my teache-"  
"Frederick Shinichi what on EARTH are you doing?!"  
"Oops..." the boy winced, turning to see a woman about his mom's age hurrying over, a fierce glare on her face and a small crowd of kids behind her.  
"You return that poor pokemon this instant! I look away for one second and you run off and accost some poor trainer with pokemon you were told to CATCH ONLY!" She held out her hand, "Pokeballs. Now." The boy bowed his head and handed over a half dozen or so pokeballs, and the lady stuffed them in her bag before looking at Red. "I'm sorry about him. I brought out my class today to practice catching and to collect a few pokemon to use as examples. A beedrill showed up, and by the time I had handled it some of them had run off. Where is everyone else?" She turned her glare back to the boy.  
"They ran off deeper! I don't know where they went!"  
"Mew give me patience." The teacher sighed, "I'm sorry to bother you, but if you see any more of them can you tell the Ms. Evergreen is looking for them?" Red nodded. "Thank you dear. Here, for the trouble." The woman took a wallet out of her bag, and Red shook his head. "Oh I insist. It's the least I can do, even if this is the only boy you manage to find." She held out a small stack of bills, and Red awkwardly accepted it. "Have a good day dear. Stay safe." Red just nodded as the teacher dragged her student back to the rest of the class.  
"That was..." Red didn't know what to say. He was going to have to keep an eye out for more kids apparently...  
"Let's go Charmander."  
“Cha!”  
Honestly, there was no way Red would actually find another one of those students. Viridian Forest was a big place, and even if he stuck to the established paths there were so many branches and detours the odds of picking the same one as someone else on accident had to be one in a million or something. Red and Charmander happily walked along, battling an aggressive spearow, but mostly just making their way down the path. Red checked the Viridian Forest page on his map. There was a rest spot at about the halfway point. They weren’t running through the forest nearly fast enough to do this whole trip in a day (honestly, Red didn’t even know if he could move that fast.) so that would be a good spot to aim for. They had plenty of time to get there.  
“Mander man.” Red looked down at where Charmander was tugging at his sleeve, before following a pointed claw to the trees up ahead. Another spearow? Hopefully not. They were known to flock, and Red didn’t want to try and deal with a fearow, much less its twenty friends.  
“I see you up there! Come on, get in the pokeball!” Red tensed just a little bit and fiddled with his hat. He walked a little farther up the path and, just barely inside the treeline, there was another kid looking up at a tree, throwing a pokeball up. It came down and he failed to catch it, and instead caught a blob of web in the face for his troubles. He fought to rip it off, and when he managed, he sank to the floor and caught his breath. That’s when he saw Red, by this point just a few feet away.  
"Heya! My name's Dion. Do you want to battle?" Red shook his head. "Oh come on! You can't jam out if you want to be a trainer!" But he could tell this kid to go back to his group before something happened. Red just pointed back the way he’d come. “What’s back there?”  
Red took a quick breath, “Ms. Evergreen’s looking for you.  
The kid paled. "I'm in so much trouble! I've gotta go!" The kid turned and took off behind Red. As he left, a green, spider like pokemon descended from the tree and hissed. Red lifted his hands and backed away from it. No use upsetting it any more than that kid had. Seriously, why would you make a pokemon mad when you didn’t even have one to defend yourself with?  
Although, Red could understand why a class would come into Viridian Forest to catch pokemon. Most of the pokemon here were bug types, or at the very least fairly docile and easy to catch. And it was so full of life! It felt like he couldn’t go ten steps without seeing something new; caterpie climbing up the sides of trees, a horde of beedrill guarding kakunas that Red had to take a detour to avoid. At one point Red saw an injured pidgey on the ground and he stopped to help heal its wing. It sat on top of his hat as he walked for probably an hour before it found its flock and a pidgeotto flew down to take it and carry it away. Charmander even managed to startle an oddish by walking directly on top of it while it was buried and asleep! Charmander had stumbled back and fallen off his feet while the oddish ran off to go find a new hiding spot.  
“You ok Charmander?”  
“Cha!” Charmander seemed indignant at the suggestion, and proved his point by running ahead a few feet before turning back to look at his trainer. See? Just fine!  
Red was the only one who saw the grass next to him rustle. "Look out!"  
"Der?" Charmander tilted his head to the side, oblivious as a weedle launched itself out of the grass, and slammed into his back and hard enough to send him tumbling forward.  
"Charmander!" Red took a step closer, but stopped as the weedle cried out, aiming his horn at Red.  
"man..." Charmander staggered to his feet and looked back at the weedle and taking its attention back off of the much less hardy trainer.  
"Scratch it quick!" Charmander moved forward sluggishly, slow enough for the weedle to dodge his first couple swings and get another hit of its own. Finally, Charmander got a clean hit, and the weedle went flying back, before disappearing into the grass.  
"Charmander! Come here bud I've got you." Charmander staggered back to Red, his tail dimmer than normal and a purple tinge to his face. Poisoned. "It's all right bud. I got an antidote." Red started digging through his bag.  
Food, no.  
Clothes, no.  
Tent, no.  
Potion- Red tossed that towards Charmander, who caught it dumbly as he watched Red. Where was it- There! Red grabbed the little yellow container and swore he’d organize his bag properly as he pulled Charmander closer. The hit wasn’t even that bad. Charmander certainly took worse than that on the way here, but the weedle had managed to get between some of his scales and break skin. Red sprayed the antidote on the little hole, and Charmander let out a startled yelp that got cut off as one last wave of poison wracked his little body.  
“Sorry buddy. I know it stings but you’ll feel better in a minute I promise.” Red didn’t need to use nearly as much as he had, but so what? He didn’t stop until Charmander relaxed and the purple tint faded from his cheeks. “I’m gonna use some potion on it too ok? Can you hand me that?” Charmander turned a little and offered the potion, and just shivered slightly as the potion coated his injury. When Red stopped, he relaxed. Charmander was fine. He was just tired.  
"You get a good rest, ok Charmander? I'll let you out at dinner, ok?" Charmander nodded, and Red tapped his head with his pokeball and returned him.  
Now he was alone. Red shuddered at an absent wind, and glanced around him. Red wasn’t that far from the rest spot. Maybe an hour at the pace he was going, half that if he moved quick. Red put the medicine back in his bag and got up. He had time before it got dark, he'd be fine.  
"DRILL!"  
"FREE!"  
As long as he stopped jumping at every little thing that was. Ok, stay calm. Red pulled out his atlas. Viridian Forest wasn't too bad if you followed the main paths. All he had to do was stay on this path until it ended. Take a left, and he'd be fine. The rest spot was right there and he probably wouldn't even be the only person camping out there. Red checked his compass even though he knew he had just checked it five minutes before Charmander got attacked, adjusted his bag, and kept walking. It would probably only take a half hour. He had plenty of time.  
Half an hour was also plenty of time to see some of the other pokemon Viridian Forest was home to. There were a few more of those spider things Red couldn’t remember the name of, and Red knew he heard hoothoots and noctowl. He thought about using a repel to be safe, but he’d only bought enough for tonight. That was a mistake he was never making again. Still, it wouldn’t be too long before he made it to the rest spot. He turned when the path split and watched as a pair of pichu scurry up a tree and dive into a little hollow for the night. Red looked ahead, and sighed in relief when he saw the rest site in the distance.  
As it turns out though, Red was the only person here tonight. Of course he was. Its fine. Viridian Forest was pretty safe. The worst thing here was supposed to be the occasional beedrill or pidgeot. Red took a breath, and set his bag down. "Hey Charmander, come on out." Red tossed the pokeball up, and when Charmander appeared, he was sat down, slumped slightly but alert.  
"Cha..."  
"How are you feeling buddy?" Charmander waved his tail. It was stronger than it had been earlier. Still not as bright as normal, but stronger. "I should have been paying more attention." Red muttered, "Do you want to stay in your pokeball? Or do you mind standing guard while I set up camp?" Charmander adjusted himself, before looking out into the forest around them. "Thanks bud."  
The rest site wasn't that big. Spots for four tents or so circling a brick barrier that had ash from the last fire still inside. Red went to the tree line and started collecting fallen branches, twigs, anything that looked like it would be good for a fire. He wouldn't light it until it got dark in a half hour or so, but he wanted everything ready while he could see. He had water, food, there was a spot already set up for a bathroom over there... All he really needed to do was set up his tent and repel the area. Red pulled his tent out of his bag and released the capsule. All the parts were lined up ready for him, so Red spent the next 10 minutes silently pitching his tent before putting his bag inside and releasing his sleeping bag inside too. Then he went around the edges of the camp with the repel and watched as a few pokemon already scurried away from it. He used the whole can, and tossed it by his bag.  
"That's everything Charmander."  
"Cha." Charmander smiled at him.  
"Come here. I want to use a little more potion on you." It wouldn't do much, but just in case there was anything he missed Red wanted to be safe. Charmander walked over slowly, but steady enough that it eased his worry a bit. Charmander just looked tired. Tired was fine. Tired was safe. Still. Red applied another round of potion, before he gave Charmander a much appreciated scratch under the chin. "Are you hungry bud?" Charmander nodded. "Ok, let's get the fire going and eat ok?"  
"Mander." Red walked over to the middle of the campsite and looked down at the firewood he had.  
"Is it ok if I borrow your tail Charmander?" In response, Charmander walked over and spun, putting his tail halfway in the fire put for Red to use to light his kindling. Soon, he had a fire going, and a can of soup for him and a can of pokemon food for charmander warming up. He sat down to watch over it, and Charmander curled up, his tail resting on top of the bricks across from Red.  
“Um, excuse me?” Red turned to see another kid his age, covered in dirt and shaking slightly. One of them was still out here? And this deep in the woods? "Do you have something to eat? I got lost, and I don't know where my class is." Back home where they were supposed to be. Red nodded and pointed to the can of soup on the fire. He wasn’t that hungry, he could wait for another one to heat up.  
“Thank you thank you thank you!” Red just nodded as he grabbed another can and peeled off the label, before setting it on the bricks. The fire was too small to put it on before he took the others off.  
"Charmander, can you grab it out of the fire." Red said softly.  
"Char!" Charmander pulled the two cans out, completely ignoring the fire and set them down on the bricks. Red handed the boy a spoon and put his own soup on the fire. The boy immediately sat down in front of his can and shoved a spoonful in his mouth.  
"HOT HOT HOT!" And immediately burned himself. A fire type just took it off the fire, what did he expect? The boy blew on it to cool it down, before properly taking a bite. "Thank you again. My name's Charlie."  
Red cleared his throat. "Red."  
"Charmander!"  
"So you're a trainer already?" Red nodded. "That's so cool! I can't wait until I'm old enough. Hey, did you know some pokemon evolve?" Of... course he did? "Well bug types are the best because they evolve really fast! If you train a bug type they get really strong really fast! I actually saw a caterpie evolve earlier! Caught it too!" Red just nodded along as Charlie continued to ramble. Charlie occasionally asked him a question, and Red responded with his usual short answers while he gave a little more fuel to the fire and stirred his can of soup.  
His food was ready and he'd almost finished it when Charmander looked up, before letting out a startled cry and falling back. Red and Charlie did the same a moment later when a pidgeot landed a few feet away, a man in orange and black hopped off. Oh, he was a ranger.  
"Hey, is either of you Charlie Manabu?"  
"That's me." The ranger looked relieved as he reached for his walkie.  
"I found the last one. I'll send him back in a minute."  
"Copy that."  
The ranger lowered his hand to his side and sighed, "You had everyone worried kid. You can't go running off like that."  
"I'm sorry."  
"It's ok. What matters is that you're safe." he turned to Red. "Thanks for looking after him. You're a trainer right?" Red reached into his pocket and took out his ID. "Red Kiro huh?” Red nodded, “Anything I can do to thank you?"  
Red looked at Charmander. He looked a lot better but... "Do you… have any pecha berries?"  
The ranger chuckled. "Weedle got you?" Red nodded. "I always carry some when I go near Viridian. Here you go." Red nodded his thanks, and the ranger turned to Charlie. "You ready to head home?"  
"Yes sir." The ranger took a pokeball off his waist and sent out a kadabra.  
"Can you bring Charlie here back to Viridian?"  
"Dabra!" Kadabra lifted its spoon and pressed it to Charlie's back, before, in a flash of light, both disappeared.  
"Have a good night. Make sure you put that fire out when you leave, ok?" Red nodded, and watched as the ranger flew off. Red sat in silence for a minute, before turning to Charmander.  
"Well it looks like you get dessert tonight." Charmander laughed as Red reached into the pouch the ranger gave him and tossed Charmander a couple berries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you all enjoy this story! I know Red's journey isn't exactly the most original topic to cover, but I hope I can make it interesting. I haven't read the manga, and I've only watched parts of the show, so anything in those canons is likely going to be contradicted, but if they have anything interesting to say please let me know! I will be following the story of the games, but there are going to be changes to hopefully make it more interesting as a read and to explain some things about how I perceive the pokemon world.  
> If you read this story I want to ask you something. Please comment and tell me that you're actually there. Even if its just a '<3' or a 'good chapter' or pointing out a fun fact it'll help keep me motivated to write. I want to get better at writing too, so constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.  
> I know most authors don't like it, but I'm actually asking you to badger me. I want to post something weekly, and if I miss one without explanation, I want my email flooded with people calling me out for it. For now, I will be posting Monday nights, and since I am in a late timezone, you will probably be seeing chapters when you wake up on Tuesday.  
> Also, I'm posting this both here and on Fanfiction.net, so if you prefer to read over there for any reason, just search it. Everything should be identical to here.


	2. First Catch

The rest of Red's walk through Viridian Forest was uneventful. Outside of a stray pidgey, nothing interrupted him at all. Still, every time Charmander tried to run too far ahead he called the pokemon back. Red didn't want to risk him getting poisoned again. Ember training was also off the table, because no one in their right mind would use fire type moves in the middle of a forest.  
Pewter City and Viridian City were a lot more different than Red was expecting. Where Viridian's buildings looked modern and included a few skyscrapers dotted around, Pewter was... gray. The buildings were made of gray stone and only a few of them were taller than two stories. Still, parts of the city seemed to tower over others, built so high up the mountain that their ground floors were probably a story above even the tallest buildings at Red's level.  
"You're a trainer right?" Red jumped and turned to see a man in a green shirt standing off to the side.  
Cha!" Charmander answered for him, and Red gave the man a quick nod.  
"Brock's looking for new challengers. Follow me. I'll show you where the gym is." The man started walking, and it took a few seconds for Red to process that enough to follow behind. "Pewter doesn't have many serious trainers. Most of those types tend to head down to Viridian. More competition since its so close to the league, apparently." He sighed. "Most of the ones who stick around are bug catchers and locals. Gives Brock a lot more free time than most gym leaders, but apparently personal training just isn't as helpful as throwing bodies at your pokemon till it figures out what it's doing." The man stopped suddenly, "Oh, sorry to drop all that on you. It just bugs me how we get glossed over like that. Just cause Brock likes helping new trainers out more than gatekeeping the league." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, we're almost there." The man pointed at a building with the same orange roof as the gym in Viridian, with the only difference being the color of the league symbol in front. For some reason, there was a fence set up, blocking them from going this way and making the two go all the way around, "Good luck kid. If you have the right stuff take on Brock. Even if you don't, sticking around for a little can only help you learn it." The man gave Red a grin, before waving at him as he walked away.  
Wait! Red wanted to know where the pokemon center was too... Red just sighed and walked inside. Even if there weren't that many trainers here, it wasn't like they'd even gotten ember working right yet.  
~~~~~~  
The gym was even emptier than he'd expected. There were maybe a dozen trainers here, and while there was a steady djinn of noise, it wasn't anywhere near what Viridian City had. Only half the trainers were battling, and the rest were like Red, training their pokemon off in their own little section of the gym. There were only two people with the boulder badge on their clothes, someone in his mid teens wearing all green, and someone wearing cargo pants and a gray and orange jacket who, last Red saw, was helping a pair on the far side with a butterfree and a beedrill.  
Red had taken his spot halfway down the wall closest to the door and gotten back to practicing ember. "Come on Charmander. We're almost there."   
Charmander took a breath, his mouth just starting to smoke. "Char-MANDER!" It wasn't a huge blast of flame, but it was there, a very real gout of flame that made it a few feet away from the pokemon before dissipating. "Mander? Mander charmander!"  
"You did it! Great job Charmander!"  
"Good job." Red spun, stumbled back and almost tripped over Charmander. "Sorry I snuck up on you." The man in the cargo pants said. "I was keeping an eye on you two train. Your charmander's got some pretty strong fire power for its age. How long have you had it?"  
"O-only a few days." Red admitted. He glanced up and got a better look at the ma- wait it was Brock! His hair looked more black than brown under the light so Red hadn’t spared him a second glance, but up close it was definitely the gym leader.  
"You've done a good job so far. Your bond with your first pokemon is special. Keep it up and he'll take you far." Brock knelt down and looked at Charmander. "You hear that bud? Give your trainer your best and you two can do anything."  
Charmander nodded. "Char! Charmander Ard!"  
Brock stood up, "Now that you two can use ember, you'll need to get better with it. The faster and easier you can use it, the more helpful it'll be in battle." Brock took a pokeball from his side and tossed it up, releasing a geodude. "Geodude, can you help these two out? When he tells you, use rock throw in the air. Speed, and accuracy. Mix it up."  
"Geodude."  
Brock looked back at Red, "Whenever you two are ready, Geodude can help you fine tune that ember. When you get a little better with it you can focus on holding it, but when you're just starting out quick bursts are easier and don't leave you open." Red nodded. "Good luck. If you need anything let me know, ok?"  
"Y-yes sir. Thank you sir."  
"Just Brock is fine." The gym leader said with a smile before he walked off. Red watched him for a moment, before letting out a breath, his shoulders slacking as he turned back to the two pokemon.  
"Thank you for helping us Geodude."  
"Dude Geo."  
"Ok, first we should just worry about getting it consistently right? Can you just wait for a little while while we practice a little more?"  
Geodude nodded, "Dude."  
Red smiled, "Ok Charmander, let's get to it. Ember."   
Charmander closed his eyes and took a breath, the fire building for almost a second before he opened them and released it with a cry. "Char-mander!"  
"Great job. One more time." This time Charmander tried to fire it a little too fast, and instead of shooting out, it was more akin to Charmander spitting a wad of flame in front of him. Geodude gave them a look, and Red wasn't sure how a rock with a face could manage to look so amused. Red fought back a blush. "Still needs a bit more work."  
The two of them practiced on their own for maybe another half hour, Red keeping track of how many times in a row Charmander could get it. When they hit 25, he turned to Geodude, "I think we're ready. Can you start off easy?"  
"Dude." Geodude floated over from where it had been resting by the wall, and slammed his hand into the ground, pulling out a rock about as big as he was. After Red asked Charmander if he was ready and got a nod in return, the rock pokemon lobbed the rock straight up in the air.  
"Char-mander!" It wasn't dead on, but Charmander was able to graze the rock as it fell. Geodude caught it, and waited a moment, before tossing it again. Again, Charmander was able to hit it, but not quite dead on. The two went back and forth for a while, Red just watching on, carefully studying the two.  
"Charmander, lean forward a bit and rest your tail on the ground."  
"Man." Geodude waited for Charmander to shift, before tossing the rock again. This time, Charmander hit it dead on, hard enough that Geodude actually had to drift backwards a bit to catch it.   
"Good job buddy." Red said, "Your head was getting pushed back a bit. It was messing up your aim. We'll work on that."  
"Man."   
"Geo." Geodude had drifted to the side a bit, towards a large boulder nearby. He tossed his rock in his hand one time, before lobbing it to the side. Charmander caught on quick, and fired, but the ember went soaring past the rock. Geodude just stuck his hand into the boulder and pulled out another one. This time, the rock was tossed at a lower angle, and Charmander was barely able to nick the back end of it. Geodude responded by getting a slightly smaller rock and using that instead. Each time Charmander hit, the rock got smaller, and soon the rocks were only half the size of the first one. Geodude decided to keep them there for a while, and Charmander fell into a bit of a rhythm.  
Then a second geodude sized rock was launched before the one prior even hit the ground. Charmander wasn't close to ready, and by the time he had a shot out the rock had long since landed. "Mander!"  
"Dude. Geo."  
"Man mander!"  
"Geo." Geodude shrugged, and Charmander huffed, but nevertheless the two went back to training, slow, small rocks being mixed in with faster, bigger rocks that Charmander was at least getting better at hitting now that he was expecting them.  
Then Geodude took one rock in each hand and tossed them both.  
"Mander char!" Charmander cried, his panic at the two targets making him miss both. Geodude let out a small laugh, and Red couldn't help but laugh with it.  
~~~~~~  
"C-can I have a battle." Red blushed slightly at his stutter, reaching up and trying to hide it with his hat. The same gym trainer from the first day turned and looked at Red.  
"You're that kid with the Charmander right?" Red nodded, "Are you just here to spar, or is this so you can fight Brock?"  
"Brock." Red said. The trainer sighed.  
"Look kid, you've been making good progress, but you're still lightyears away from fighting Brock." Red looked up at him, and the teen just nodded, "If you had a water or grass type maybe, but Brock's gonna be too tough for you with just a charmander."  
Red took a breath, "Can I... still try?" He at least wanted to know how far he was. The gym trainer sighed.  
"Sure sure. Gimme a sec to grab a pokemon to use for this." He started walking towards the back of the gym, and as he passed he called out to where Brock was putting someone's kadabra through its paces, a near constant barrage coming from one hand of a rhyperior he'd used for the task. "Hey Brock! New kid wants to do a test battle. I'm gonna grab one of the geodude, k?" Brock glanced over at Red, before nodding to the teen and turning back to talk to the kadabra's trainer.   
A few minutes later, the teen came back with a pokeball in hand and guided Red to one of the chalk outline arenas. "This'll just be a quick one on one battle ok? Standard rules, first one to faint or yield." Red nodded. And the teen sighed, "Come on out Geodude!" The teen tossed the pokeball and sent out the rock type, "First badge tester. Try to take it a little easy on him."  
"Dude."  
"Charmander, come out." Red sent out his pokemon, who glanced back at him and nodded.  
"First move's yours kid."  
Red nodded. "Ember."  
"Tank it and rock throw." Geodude raised one arm to block the worst of the ember, while the other reached back and grabbed a chunk of the ground. As soon as the ember was over, the rock was sent flying straight at Charmander.  
"Dodge it. Pepper it with embers when you get the chance."  
"Patient." The teen ordered. Charmander circled, firing ember after ember at the geodude. Geodude didn't bother dodging, putting one hand up to block the attacks, and only after what felt like a dozen of the things did it bother to lift a rock to take the impact instead.   
Charmander growled in frustration, before he suddenly launched himself to the side to try and get another hit past the geodude’s shield.  
"Now."  
Only for geodude to launch it right at him, straight through the ember attack and with enough force to slam into Charmander before he could try and dodge.  
"Char!" Charmander flew back and hit the ground hard, and Red could already see geodude approaching.  
"Charmander back up. Don't let it get clos-"  
"Tackle." Charmander was sent flying again, landing with a thud next to Red and struggling to get back up.  
"Do you yield?" The teen said. Red looked at Charmander and sighed, pulling his hat back down over his face and nodding. "In an official battle you have to say it kid."  
"I… I yield." The teen let out a breath, and returned the geodude.  
"Like I said kid. You're improving a lot. You just don't have an answer to rock types." Red nodded.  
"That's why my gym is so difficult for a first badge." Red lowered his head as he heard Brock approach. Red hadn't been expecting much, but he thought he'd get at least somewhere. The geodude still didn’t even look tired. "The rock type is hard for most trainers to face early on. They resist most of the common types trainers start with, or at the very least hit them hard in return."   
Charmander got back up, and Red knelt down. "You-” Red took a breath, “You did your best buddy." He said softly, before taking out his pokeball, "Get a good rest ok?"  
"If you want to beat my gym with Charmander, you're going to need to train a lot more." Brock said. "Teach it metal claw. It won't make it easy to defeat a rock type by any means, but having a good attack to hit them with will help a lot." Brock looked down at Charmander, "Stamina is going to be important for that. I usually use two pokemon for my first badge challenge, and if you make any mistakes like you did in this battle, you probably won't be able to do it before Charmander evolves." Red flinched.  
"Most trainers who can catch another pokemon for this gym." The teen said. "Yea neither pokemon is as strong, but being able to swap when one has a bad match up usually makes up for it." He shrugged, "Or you can come back later. No one said this had to be your first badge."  
It did. Red and Blue made a deal, and he wasn't going to back out the moment it got tough. Red shook his head, "Do, do you know where I can catch something?"  
"West of Viridian on Route 22 there are a few pokemon." Brock said, "If you don't mind getting wet, there are a few different water types that can fight on land with no issues." Red nodded, "There's also mankey, but catching and taming one of those is a challenge."  
"Most give up on that from what I've seen. Either they can't catch one at all or give up and release it later on. Nasty little suckers." He shrugged, "Ask me and I'd say get a nidoran though." Red looked up at him. Really? "Yea. As long as you can get one away from its mama, they aren't too hard to catch, and males especially like fighting, so getting them on board is easy." Red nodded, "Reason its so good is cause they have a lot of coverage early on. They can hit anything for at least normal damage, so they're good for beginners." He grinned, "Train em up though, and they do just fine for experienced ones too. Even if you don't find a moon stone." He reached to his side and tossed a pokeball up.  
"Nidorino."  
"Faster than you'd think. None of their moves are super strong on their own, but they can put a lot of pressure on someone." He knelt down to run a hand over the pokemon's back. "This guy came from route 9, but they live down on route 22 too. Might be safer to grab one there. There's a lot more nidoqueen over by mount moon. If they catch you fighting one, they'll defend it, don't matter whose baby it is." That... sounded dangerous... "If you go this route we'll help you teach it double kick. By the time we're done you'll breeze right through Brock's team."  
"Just because Liam teaches you doesn't mean I'm going to let it be easy." Brock said, "You're going to have to earn the boulder badge."  
Red nodded. "Thank you." He said softly.  
"No prob kid. It's our job."  
~~~~~~  
Red was going to get a nidoran. He'd sat down and compared nidoran and mankey in his pokedex from the time he handed over Charmander's pokeball to the time he fell asleep that night. Mankey would be better at this gym, but after that? Most of the moves it learned naturally were fighting or normal. Any pokemon that could get range, or even just a ghost type, would make it useless. Red didn't want to catch a pokemon just to never use it, even if he could actually tame such a temperamental one.  
A nido, either one, would be much better in the long term. It would have been faster to try and catch one on route 9, but Red didn’t want to risk upsetting a nidoqueen.  
Besides, there were still the water types that lived on route 22. Red didn’t think it was likely, but if he found one that seemed willing to go with him that would work just as well.  
The trip back through Viridian Forest was uneventful. There was another trainer at the halfway point, and despite being way above Red's level, was more than happy enough to let Red and Charmander practice against one of his weaker pokemon with what little sunlight had been left at the time. Boring as it was, it was still a long walk, and by the time Red made it back to Viridian City, the sun was almost down. He'd have to start in the morning to head over to route 22.  
That... would give him time to call Gramps though. He was allowed to catch more pokemon, but he needed to let the professor know, just so he could get the money he needed to care for it. Red got his room at the pokemon center and set his bag down, before heading back downstairs to the phones. When one was free, Red sat down and dialed- He wouldn't be home yet, Red should call the lab. Red waited for the phone to ring, fiddling with an empty pokeball.  
"Hello?" Gramps wasn't the one who picked up, but Mr. Nishida only had to glance up from the paper he was looking at for a moment to recognize Red and smile, "Red! How are you doing?"  
"Good." Red saw Mr. Nishida turn up the phone on his end, and repeated himself a little louder.  
"Good good. I take it you wanted to talk to the professor about something, right?" Red nodded. "I'll let him know. Wait just a minute ok?" Red nodded, and Mr. Nishida was replaced with a message that just said he was on hold. Red just kept messing with the pokeball.  
"Red?" Red smiled at the pokemon professor as the screen flared back to life. "How are you doing Red? Last I heard Blue said you went straight to Pewter, what are you doing back in Viridian?"  
"I want to catch a nidoran."  
"I see! So I take it that's what you'll be doing tomorrow?" Red nodded, "Excellent. I wish you the best of luck. While you’re here, can I ask you a favor?" Red's brow furrowed, but he nodded anyway. "I had a package delivered to the pokemart in Viridian. It's nothing pressing, so when you find your nidoran can you bring it down to Pallet Town for me? The walk can only help grow the bond between you and your pokemon after all." Red nodded, and Gramps beamed at him, "Thank you. I would have asked Blue, but he said he was going to go train on Route 22. Something about looking up at his target to help focus." Gramps cleared his throat. "Anyway, I was just wrapping up here for the day. I'll see you soon." Red nodded, and started reaching for the end call button, "Oh! And call your mother! She misses you." Red bowed his head slightly. He... hadn't called home had he? He just hadn’t really thought about it, but Mom was probably worried. Red nodded, and ended the call, before punching in his home number.  
Mom picked up on the first ring. "Red? There you are honey!" She grinned at him, "I've missed you so much! The house feels so empty without you here. How are you doing?"  
"Good. I'm, I'm gonna try and catch a pokemon tomorrow."  
"That's great! You're going to do amazing. I already know it." Red couldn't help but smile.  
"Is, is it ok if I stay there tomorrow?" Red asked, "Gramps asked me to drop something off."  
"Of course Red, I’ll make sure to make plenty for you and your pokemon! You're always welcome here, no matter what. Now, how are you and Charmander getting along?"  
"Great." Red reached for his belt and grabbed said pokemon's pokeball and released it into his lap. He had to swat away Charmander's tail before it singed his clothes, and his mom laughed through the monitor.  
"Char-mander!" Red reached up and rubbed the lizard's head, leaning to the side so he could see his mom.  
"I'm glad you two are getting along." She said, "And I'm glad to finally see my son's starter. Someone forgot to tell me who it was and made me ask Samuel." Red blushed a bit.  
"Sorry..."  
"It's fine. Just promise you'll let me meet all of your pokemon ok? If they're going to be protecting my little boy I want to be able to thank them for it." Red nodded.  
"Char! Ard Man."  
"It's getting late. You should get to bed. You're going to want to get up early tomorrow, aren't you?" Red nodded. "Good night Red. I love you."  
"I love you."  
~~~~~~  
Route 22 was a lot harder to walk than anywhere else Red had been so far. The entire thing felt like it was built halfway into the mountain, and instead of taking the straight path through there were boulders and trees in the way that made it so you were winding up and down the mountainside more than walking along it. Overhead, Red could see spearow and fearow flying, cawing and pecking at any pidgey that dared try to share the sky and after a while, a pair of pidgeot took off. It wasn't long before the fearow were gone, and soon they were replaced entirely by pidgey and pidgeottos. Up on the rocks where Red wasn't even sure how to get to, a small group of doduo were walking about, a dodrio stood over them and glared down at Red until he looked away.  
On ground level meanwhile, Red wasn't even sure where to begin. The route was just so much bigger than he'd been expecting, and it wasn't like a nidoran was going to just run up and find him. That would be too easy. Add in the tall grass, and even though he could occasionally spot movement somewhere, it was more like than not a rattata or a roosting spearow. Red sighed.  
Well, at least he knew they were here. There were maybe a half dozen nidokings and queens that he could spot over the grass, but he wasn't going to risk going near those unless he was desperate.  
"Man?" Red turned to look at the noise, and had to jump back to avoid the mankey that launched itself out of the trees right where he'd been standing.  
"Hey there buddy." Red said gently, taking a few steps backwards. "I'm not gonna hurt you." The mankey looked at him, before looking back up at the trees. Where was its colony? Red hoped that they weren't right there behind it...  
"Mankey!" It called into the trees. Well, that was good news at least.  
"I don't want any trouble, ok? I'll just-" Red stepped on a branch, and the crack immediately drew the pig monkey's attention.  
And unfortunately, it's anger too.  
"Ember." Red threw the pokeball and dove to the side, barely dodging a lunge from the pokemon. Charmander appeared, and it only took a moment for it to hit the mankey in the back.  
It was better if it was mad at Charmander than him, right? At least Charmander could fight back. The mankey turned and rushed towards Charmander, swinging its paws wildly.  
"Dodge back and hit it with another ember." That worked. For a little while at least. Charmander peppered the mankey with ranged attacks, but it was relentless! Every attack seemed to make it angrier, and it got closer, until-  
"KEY!"  
CHAR!" It hit Charmander hard, sending the fire type flying back and down one of the steep ledges dotting the route.  
"Charmander!" Red turned and jumped down after it, rolling as he hit the ground and wincing at the pain. Charmander was getting to his feet, blearily shaking his head. "Are you ok buddy?"  
"Mander cha-"  
"MANKEY!" Of course it wouldn't leave them alone. The mankey jumped down and rolled much better than Red had, and it didn't even slow down as it rushed after Charmander.  
"Hold your ember." Red said. "Wait..." Red waited for the Mankey to be barely a foot from Charmander before, "Now. Scratch it right after." Red couldn't help but smile at the results. The mankey brought its paws up to rub at its eyes after the ember, and was completely unprepared for the scratch that followed. "Scratch again, then pepper it."  
"Key! Man- Mankey!" The mankey staggered back and fell hard, clutching one of its arms where a particularly strong ember had slammed into it.  
"Stop." Red reached into his bag and pulled out the container of rawst berries he'd been giving Charmander. He took a handful out and carefully set them down, before starting to back away. "Let's get out of here." Before its friends showed up. Red didn't take his eyes off of the mankey until he physically couldn't see it anymore, before letting out a relieved breath and relaxing. "You ok bud? That was a bad fall."  
"Der..." Charmander fell into a seated position, rubbing its stomach.  
"Here. I've got a potion for you. Red gently sprayed the medicine on Charmander's belly, before taking a wrap and gently putting it around him. "Should we go back to the pokemon center, or do you think you can stick around a little longer."  
"Mmm mander." Charmander said in a tone that was only slightly forced, before pushing himself back to his feet and bouncing a couple of times in place. Then he looked up at Red and nodded.  
"Thanks buddy." Red said, looking up at the sky. "Let's stop for lunch though." Charmander nodded, and wasted no time sitting back down as Red went in his bag and grabbed Charmander's bowl and food. Red poured some for the fire type and put it down in front of him, before grabbing a sandwich and sitting down across from him. They sat in silence. Red wasn't going to admit it, but he was still listening to see if that mankey was going to come back.  
"Rino." Red turned and stilled. A quartet of pokemon were standing a few feet away. In front, a nidorino, with a purple nidoran just a pace behind it. Behind both, were a nidorina and a blue nidoran, small enough that it was still cuddled up against the nidorina's side.  
"Hey there." Red said softly, even as Charmander got up and moved between him and the nidorans. "Are we in your way?" The nidorino shook its head, before pointing its horn towards Charmander's food. "Hungry?"  
"Rino."  
"I'm sorry, but I don't have enough for all of you." Red said, reaching for his bag and taking out the rest of Charmander's food. He opened it and glanced inside, "I can probably feed two of you though. Is that ok?"  
The nidorino looked back at the nidorina and nodded. "Rino." Slowly, putting herself between Red and the baby nidoran. Red poured the rest of the food out and took a step back. The nidorina sniffed the food, before taking a bite. It chewed for a moment, before kneeling down and feeding the nidoran.   
The nidorino looked at the two for a moment, before nodding to itself and pushing the male nidoran forward. "Nido. Nido rino."  
"Ran?"  
"Rino." The nidorino pointed its horn at Charmander, then at the nidoran. Then it pointed at Red's waist. He reached down absently, his hand brushing against his pokeballs.  
"Do, do you want me to try and catch nidoran?"  
"Rino."  
Red nodded, before looking down at Charmander, "Well that works out. Do you think you can handle it buddy?"  
"Char Charmander!" Charmander nodded and took a step forward. Red glanced at the two females.  
"Let's back up a little bit. So those two can eat in peace." That seemed to please the nidorino, and the four of them walked a little bit away from them. Close enough to be in sight, but far enough that there shouldn't be any risk of them getting hurt.  
"Are you ready?" The nidoran looked a little nervous, but nodded. "Ok, you can go first."   
The nidoran hesitated for a moment, before it took a deep breath and dashed towards Charmander.  
"Left and scratch." Red said. Despite its injury, Charmander was still fairly fast, and scored a good blow to the nidoran’s flank.  
"Ran!" It staggered to the side, before it recovered and lunged forward.  
"Ember." The sudden heat made the nidoran flinch, but it was still moving fast enough to hit Charmander. Charmander winced, but scratched it and growled. Nidoran staggered back and seemed hesitant to approach, so Charmander shot another ember at it. Nidoran took a breath and watched Charmander closely. When the next ember came out, nidoran ran right through it, its horn glowing a bit to take the hit, before glowing brighter as it slammed right into the bandage on Charmander's belly.  
"Mander!" Just to make it worse, Nidoran's barbs flared, and Red could see some poison soaking into the bandage right next to a few cuts.  
"Charmander grab it and pin it down."  
"Mander?" Charmander looked at him like he was crazy, and that gave Nidoran enough time to get back before he could follow through.  
"Ember it. It doesn't have any range, so don't let it close." That made more sense to Charmander, and he started peppering nidoran and the space in between them with embers. Nidoran took a step back, unsure.   
"Rino! Nidorino!" Whatever he said, it got through to nidoran enough that he dashed forward, slamming into the ground to scrape under an ember and getting barely a few feet from Charmander, running at full speed.  
"Scratch up." Nidoran wasn't quite fast enough though, and Charmander knocked the horn out of the way, before another ember slammed into its exposed belly. Red grabbed a pokeball. "Now. Let's go pokeball." Nidoran's eyes widened, but there wasn't anything it could do to dodge the pokeball. It went in and fell.  
It shook once.  
Twice.  
Three times.  
Click.  
"We, we did it." Red said. Charmander sagged, before reaching one claw out to poke the pokeball.  
"Ran! Nidoran ran!" The newly caught nidoran looked around in shock, and Nidorino let out a low laugh.  
"Rino nido nidorino."  
"Ran nido ran."  
Red knelt down and pulled an antidote out of his bag, spraying it on Charmander who winced, but let Red patch him up. "You did great Charmander." He said, before turning to the nidorino and nidoran, who were quickly joined by the two females. "You too Nidoran. Welcome to the team." Nidoran smiled, and Red held out a hand for it to sniff, before gently scratching it on the head. It let out a pleased sound and Red looked at the nidorino and nidoran. "I'll take good care of him, I promise."  
"Rino."  
"Rina!" The two said at the same time. Overhead, a spearow cried out and started coming lower. Nidorina immediately went to cover her baby, and nidorino just rolled his eyes.  
"Ri-No." Electricity sparked, and a thunderbolt shot up, not hitting the spearow but coming close enough to send the bird running off.  
Thunderbolt? But, Nidorino couldn't learn that naturally. They could only learn it if...  
"You used to have a trainer?"   
Nidorino nodded.  
"What happened?" Nidorino just walked over and nuzzled the nidorina. Red smiled. "Thank you."  
"Rino Nido.”  
~~~~~~  
"Charmander is going to be just fine." Nurse Joy said, passing over Charmander's pokeball. "It took a nasty hit, but you did really well in caring for it. Don't let it do any actual battling for a few days so its stomach can heal and it'll be just fine." Red nodded, "You just caught this nidoran correct?" Red nodded again, "If you'll give me just a minute I can do a full diagnostic on it, just to make sure everything is healthy as can be. You can take a seat if you want, I’ll bring it over to you once I’m finished." Red nodded, and walked over to the waiting area. He took out his pokedex and looked at the information it had on nidoran again. Liam was right, there weren't many strong moves they could learn naturally. Horn attack was the only one they could until they evolved into Nidoking. They could learn a few TMs, but Red wasn't sure how many he could reasonably give it.  
Since Nidorino had thunderbolt, was it possible for Nidoran to learn it? Red had no idea, but he'd have to ask Gramps about that. Even if he couldn't teach it anytime soon, that could be really helpful later on. Nidoran weren't the best at moves like that, but having the range...  
"Mr. Kiro?" Red looked up at Nurse Joy, who was holding Nidoran's pokeball out for him. He took it and nodded his thanks before she spoke up again, "Your nidoran is in excellent health. It has a slight protein deficiency, so I would recommend mixing some in with its food for the first month or so, but as long as you feed it properly there shouldn't be any issues either way." Red nodded.  
"Thank you."  
"It's my pleasure. I hope you have a good day." The nurse smiled at him and walked back to the counter, and Red fiddled with Nidoran's pokeball for a moment, before standing up and walking outside. It wasn't that late, so if Red hurried he should hopefully be able to make it back to Pallet Town tonight before it got dark. Red walked over to the pokemart. He grabbed a bag of pokemon food each for Nidoran and Charmander, before grabbing a container of protein and going to the far counter. Luckily there wasn't a line. Red took a breath, before talking to the clerk.  
"E-excuse me, but is there a package here for Professor Oak?"  
The clerk looked down at him, "Can I see your ID?" Red offered it to him, and after waiting a moment while he checked it, the clerk handed it back, "He said you'd be stopping by to grab it. Wait right there and I'll grab it." Another awkward wait while the clerk went in the back, before he came back with a small box.  
"Thank you." Red said softly as he took it.  
"Anything else you need today?" Red paid for the food and stepped aside to slide it into his bag, before heading out of Viridian. When he was out on route 1, Red grabbed a pokeball and tossed it up.  
"Ran?" Nidoran appeared in a flash of light, shaking his head for a moment before looking up at Red.  
"Hey Nidoran." Red said, kneeling down, "Do you want to walk with me for a while?"  
"Ran." Nidoran nodded, and Red smiled, standing back up and adjusting his pack. The two walked in silence, Nidoran staying right at Red's side. Every now and then, a pidgey or a rattata would appear, but Red was able to shoo them away easily enough.   
"Sprout!"   
"Ran!" Red barely saw something move. One moment they were walking by a group of flowers, the next Nidoran was wrapped up in a bunch of vines. The flower twitched, and a yellowish fluid leaked out. "Ran!" Nidoran kicked out at it, and the vines loosened enough for him to squirm out.  
"Sprout?" The bellsprout blinked its eyes, before they widened. "Bell bellsprout!"  
"Are you ok Nidoran?" Nidoran shook itself and the liquid flew everywhere, melting tiny holes in the grass.  
"Ran!"  
"Well if this thing wants to fight, we can give it one. Are you ready?" Nidoran looked nervous, but still nodded its head. "Start it off with a peck."  
"Ran." Nidoran dashed forward and ducked under a vine swung its way. Its horn started glowing a bluish white-  
"Bell." but sailed right over the bellsprout's head when the grass type bent backwards so low it almost touched the floor with its head.  
"Keep running." Nidoran was able to make it back out of the bellsprout's range before it could lash out. "Stop." Nidoran ran just a little farther before breaking, putting it safely away from bellsprout." If it was going to dodge around like that...  
"Focus energy." Nidoran took a breath and focused down on the bellsprout. "Aim low and peck again."  
"Ran!" Nidoran took a few steps slowly, before it swapped into a full sprint and aimed its horn at the bellsprout."  
"Sprout!" Nidoran jerked to the side to dodge the vines, losing speed for a moment but quickly getting it back. Bellsprout tried to bend over again, but this time, Nidoran was ready, and slammed right into the back of its head. "Bell!" The bellsprout flew up a bit, but its roots kept it mostly in place.  
"Don't run. Stay close and peck again." Bellsprout's vines tried to constrict, but another peck made it flinch, before nidoran's barbs flared. Bellsprout recoiled, mostly unharmed but shocked enough for Nidoran to get away. Bellsprout didn't try to attack again, instead shoving its vines into the dirt to try and pull its roots out. Red and Nidoran watched, and as soon as it was free the bellsprout turned and fled into the taller grass.  
"Great job buddy." Red said, kneeling down. Nidoran ran up to him, and Red held out his hand for the poison pokemon to sniff. He waited for its barbs to retract, before gently rubbing a hand over Nidoran's head. "That was our first battle together." Red said.  
"Ran ran!"  
"You did amazing. Let's work hard and get even stronger, ok?"  
"Ran ran!"  
~~~~~~  
Red had been wrong. He couldn't get to Pallet Town by nightfall. He couldn't even blame that bellsprout either, because when night fully fell Pallet was still mostly just a collection of lights in the distance. Still, when he was that close Red may as well just finish the trip. He returned Nidoran and sent out Charmander, using the fire type as a light so he wouldn't trip over anything and to hopefully deter any pokemon from bothering him. Route 1 was fairly safe though, so he didn't need to worry. It took him another half hour or so to reach town, and when he did Red put Charmander back in his pokeball and started on the familiar path towards Blue's house. It wasn't far from his, so he could drop off Gramps's package before heading home. Red made it to Blue's house and knocked, shifting his bag as he waited.  
"Hell- Oh Red!" Daisy opened the door and smiled at him. "We assumed you weren't going to get here until tomorrow." She stepped aside and Red followed her in, shutting the door behind him. "How are you?"  
"Good." Red said. Daisy rolled her eyes.  
"Quiet as ever." She muttered.  
"Red?" Gramps was sitting at the table, a book in hand and a cup of tea in front of him. "There you are. I take it you found your nidoran?" Red nodded. "Excellent." Gramps put his book down and got up, walking over to the two of them. Red grabbed Nidoran's pokeball and tossed it.  
"Ran?" Nidoran looked around, before making some kind of squeak sound at the two strangers so close to it and scurried behind Red's leg.  
"Hey, it's ok buddy." Red knelt down next to Nidoran and put a hand out, letting him smell it before gently rubbing Nidoran's back, using his sleeve to push the barbs back down. "They're friends."  
Daisy knelt down next to Red, "I'm Daisy. It's nice to meet you." She offered her hand too, and after glancing at Red Nidoran took a step forward and let her pet him.  
"Your Nidoran looks like it's already starting to trust you." Gramps said, "You must have a real talent." Red shook his head, but couldn't stop himself from smiling. "And what about Charmander? How is he doing?" Red took out Charmander's pokeball and sent him out.  
"Charmander." Charmander glanced up at Professor Oak and grinned, "Man-leon!" Gramps laughed.  
"It's good to see you too Charmander." He said, kneeling down to scratch Charmander under the chin and earn a delighted cry. He saw the bandages wrapped around Charmander and raised a brow.  
"Mankey." Red said, "Knocked him down a ledge."  
"Ah. I take it he just needs some rest?" Red nodded. Professor Oak stood up, groaning a bit. "Did you bring my package?" Red nodded and grabbed it out of his bag and handed it to the professor.  
"Grandpa asked you to run an errand? Gee, that's lazy of him."  
"Red was already in Viridian, Daisy." Gramps said, popping open the box to check its contents. Red only caught a glimpse of gold, before Gramps nodded and closed the box, setting it on the table. "Thank you for bringing that Red. You should head home now though. Your mom is probably worried." Red nodded and returned Charmander. Daisy gave Nidoran one last scratch before Red returned him too.  
"You and your mom are coming by for breakfast tomorrow." Daisy said, giving him a look that said he’d better do as she said, “At least Blue said bye before he left." She huffed and rolled her eyes despite her smile. Red looked down and reached up to lower his hat, but Daisy snagged it off his head before he could. She gave him a smile before handing it back and going to sit down, "See you tomorrow Red. Night."  
"Good night Daisy. Gramps."  
Good night Red."  
Red put his hat back on and left, taking a right and heading back towards his house. As he approached, he saw his mom outside, glancing around. When she spotted him, she smiled, "Red! There you are. When it got dark I thought you got caught in Viridian, but you didn't call. I was starting to worry."  
"Sorry." Red said.  
"It's all right honey." His mom said, pulling him into a hug. "Come inside. Dinner's ready and I want to hear all about your journey so far, ok?" Red smiled and took his bag off, setting it down by the door. "I made something for your pokemon too. I hope they like it." How could they not? Red reached to his side and grabbed the two pokeballs, so his mom could finally meet his pokemon.  
~~~~~~  
Red didn't stick around long the next morning. He got up and got ready, before going over to Blue's to have breakfast. When they were done, Red said his goodbyes and left, not before his mom extracted a promise to call at least once a week. Red and Nidoran walked back to Viridian together, fighting off a couple stray rattatas on the way. There wasn't time to start on the trip through Viridian Forest. Red glanced down at Nidoran, who pointed its horn down towards Route 22. Red smiled. Sure, Nidoran could spend time with his family today. Maybe Red could even ask to battle his dad. If he'd had a trainer who was willing to use TMs on him he was probably really strong.  
Red was halfway down the route, scanning the area while Nidoran called out for his dad. They'd had to swat away a few more rattatas on the way, and Red was starting to get used to some of the differences between using Charmander and using Nidoran. After sending the most recent rat (seriously, they were everywhere) scurrying away, Red picked Nidoran up so he could get a better view, and it didn't take long for Nidoran to jump out of his arms and start running. Looks like he'd found his family. Red followed after him. There they were. The baby nidoran looked at its mom, before turning and running over to greet her brother. Red stayed a little away, and Nidorino nodded at him. Red was just about to ask him to spar, when all 4 of them tensed. Red looked around, confused.  
"Hey! Red!" Red turned to look, and saw Blue jogging down the path towards him, covered in a bit of dirt, but besides that looking just how he had last time Red saw him.  
"Rino!" Blue stopped, finally noticing the nidoran family.  
"Made some friends I see." Blue said, stopping and lifting his hands, "Don't worry, I won't hurt you guys." Nidorino put himself in between Blue and the rest, and Nidorina pulled the baby closer to her, while Nidoran ran over to Red. "Take it you caught that one?" Red nodded, and Blue gave him a smirk, "So, have you gotten any stronger?" He said, reaching to his side and grabbing a pokeball. Red nodded.  
"Nidoran, this is Blue." Red said, "We started training pokemon at the same time."  
"Ran? Nido?"  
"What do you say Red? Wanna have a battle?" Red glanced down at Nidoran, who glanced back and forth between Red, Blue, and his family, before taking a few steps forward. "I've only caught one new one. How about a 2 on 2?"  
Red adjusted his hat and nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter! I'm trying to give each of Red's pokemon a nature, but I'm not sure how well I'm doing so far. If you have a guess for each of their natures, let me know!
> 
> Again, if you're reading this please comment to tell me you're out there. Next chapter should be out late on Monday the 11th, so if you don't see it by Tuesday morning yell at me until its there ok? I hope you all have a great day.


	3. Blue's Gym Challenge

"Come on out Pidgey!" Blue tossed a pokeball up, and in a flash of light, the flying type appeared.  
"Ji!"  
"Nidoran Get ready."  
"Rino!" Nidorino barked, and stood off to the side glaring both pokemon down as he waited for Nidorina and the baby to back up. When he decided they were far enough Nidorino spoke up. "Nid. Rino. DO!"  
"That's as clear a start as any huh Red?" Blue laughed. "Pidgey use tackle!"  
"Dodge and peck."  
Nidoran waited for Pidgey to get closer, but jumped so far to the side he barely grazed Pidgey with his peck.  
"Up!" Blue ordered.  
"Ran? Nido?" Nidoran looked up at pidgey, but there wasn't anything they could do if it was up there.  
"Gust!" And Blue knew it.  
"Ran!" Nidoran ran under pidgey to dodge the blast of wind.  
"They can't stop you! Keep it up pidgey!"  
"Ran!"  
"Nido!"  
"DO!"  
Nidoran kept running around, doing his best to stay out of the way of the wind, but even still, he couldn't dodge all of it. Eventually he'd get whittled down.  
Wait for it...  
Wait for it...  
"Ember." one pokeball thrown as another activated. And instead of a running poison type, an attacking fire type was in the way of the gust.  
"Char-MANDER!"   
"Huh?!"   
Red smiled as the two attacks collided, the gust making ember stronger, maybe even as strong as a flamethrower.  
"JI!!!" Pidgey wasn't even close to prepared for the attack, and almost fell all the way to the floor before he righted himself.  
"Don't stop. Pepper it with embers."  
"Pidgey dodge it!"  
Pidgey wasn't nearly as good at dodging as Nidoran. It wasn't nearly as fast as the rocks Geodude threw either, even if it could change direction.  
"Grr... Gu- No tackle!"   
"Meet it with a scratch. Finish it."  
"Pidgey up!"  
"If it runs, ember." Blue flinched. Pidgey glanced back, not sure what to do. In that moment, Charmander fired another ember, and Pidgey slammed into the ground. Charmander rushed in to scratch it. "Stop."  
"Gah, you got me Red." Blue said, returning his pidgey. "I wasn't expecting you to swap." Red just nodded. "Fine, but it's not like either of your pokemon stands a chance against Squirtle! Come on out!"  
"Squirt!" Charmander and Squirtle locked eyes and smiled for a moment, before they remembered where they were and tensed up.  
"You ready Squirtle? Hit him with-"  
"Ember, stay back." Charmander bounced back a few feet, shooting embers. The water gun Blue ordered canceled out the first few, and after that he was out of ember range. He shot a water gun back at Charmander, but it was far enough that he could easily sidestep it.  
"Get closer! He can't run forever." Squirtle took a few steps closer, and dove to the side to dodge an ember, before firing another water gun at Charmander. Charmander jumped to the left and shot an ember, but Squirtle held the attack long enough to swing it over and slam into him anyway.  
"Char!"  
"Rush him."  
"He'll never make it! Squirtle full power!" Charmander tried diving to the side, but the attack still skimmed him.  
"Peck!" Again, Red switched pokemon-  
"Not falling for that one again! Shell!" Squirtle's attack cut off and he hid in his shell. Nidoran was stunned as he came out of the pokeball, and wasn't ready to dodge the rest of the water gun, much less try to attack.  
"Ran!"  
"Your nidoran won't be able to even scratch Squirtle's armor! Water gun!"  
"Stay back Nidoran." The poison type scurried back towards Red, well out of range of the water gun. "Focus energy." Nidoran took a breath and watched Squirtle, before nodding. "It’s better to not take a hit than to hit him. Try to get behind him."  
"Ran!"  
"Water gun! Don't let it get closer!"  
"Squirt!" Nidoran dove to the side to dodge the water gun, and jumped over it on the return before darting to the side. Squirtle turned to keep it in sight, but couldn't get more than a glancing blow as Nidoran slowly circled closer.  
"Peck now."  
"Shell!"  
Nidoran slammed into Squirtle's shell, and took a bit of a water gun in retaliation before sliding around behind the water type. Squirtle dove back in his shell. The two repeated the exchange a few more times, Nidoran getting progressively better at avoiding Squirtle's retaliation. Still, it was slow going. None of the attacks seemed to be doing much, and the constant running was wearing Nidoran out faster than Squirtle.  
Until.  
"Poison it."  
"Wha- Squirtle get back!" Squirtle tried to bounce out of its shell away from Nidoran, but he wasn't fast enough. Nidoran slammed into him and flared his barbs.  
"Squirt!" Squirtle cried and shot a water gun at Nidoran. Nidoran jerked to the side, but it was so close there wasn't anything he could do to avoid the attack. Squirtle stumbled a bit, wincing slightly.  
"Return, Nidoran." Red held the pokeball up for a moment, "You did great. Thank you." Red took a breath, "Come on back Charmander."  
"Mander!"  
"Stay back. Nidoran poisoned it. If he comes close, ember it but try to stay back."  
"Grr. Fine! Squirtle water gun up and rush!" Squirtle took a breath and fired a shot up. He paused for just a moment and started running.  
"Mander!" Charmander fired a shot, but the water gun falling snuffed it out and let Squirtle get close enough to fire his own attack. Charmander dove to the side and shot an ember, before crying out as the water gun came around to smack him again.  
"Keep away."  
"Don't let him!"  
Charmander tried backpedaling, firing embers as he did, but they couldn't do much since Squirtle was firing water guns so much that one always seemed like it would be in the way. Red wasn't sure if he could hold out long enough.  
But if Squirtle couldn't see him...  
"Make an ember and hold it."  
"Man?"  
"What are you planning Red? Squirtle don't get too close."  
Charmander took a breath, and a moment later, smoke started pouring out of its mouth. Blue's eyes widened.  
"He's trying to use smokescre-"  
Charmander coughed, and the ember failed, smoke pouring out of his mouth. It wasn't as big as Red hoped, and it was already fading, but-  
"Shoot the whole thing!"  
It looked like it was enough.  
"Act like it’s that mankey."  
"What?" Blue looked across at Red, but Red couldn't help but smile as he saw Charmander dive out of the smoke. He looked tired, and he was covered in ash, but still standing. And by the time the smoke cleared and Blue could see where Charmander was, Squirtle was panting, exhausted.  
"There he is! Squirtle water gun fast!"  
"Squir-" Squirtle took a shaky breath, "Tle!" And his water gun wasn't able to reach Charmander."  
"Ember. You can outrange him now."  
"Squirtle ge-" Blue hesitated.  
"Squirtle!" Squirtle took the ember, and staggered back. He almost made it back to his feet, before poison wracked his body and he fell.  
"Rino! Nido Nidorino!" Red couldn't help but smile at Nidorino, even as he walked over to Charmander.  
"Good job buddy."  
"Agh, you just lucked out." Blue said, putting Squirtle's pokeball back on his side. "If I got one more good hit on Charmander he would've gone down."  
"But you didn't." Red said.  
Blue gave him a look, and sighed when Red just smiled, "Fine, you win."  
Red took out Charmander's pokeball and returned him, before sending Nidoran back out. Nidoran looked up at him and tried to get up, but Red knelt down and put a hand to stop him. "You did great buddy. Do you want to head back to the pokemon center and heal up, or do you want to rest and talk with your family?"  
Nidoran looked at his family and tried to get up again, before wincing. Nidorino caught that and gave him a glare. "Rino."  
"Ran ra-"  
"Nido! Nidorino!"  
"Rina. Rina ni." Nidorina piped up. Even his little sister tossed a little comment his way, before Nidoran sighed and slumped, before pointing his horn towards his pokeball. Red complied and returned him.  
"We'll stop by later ok?" Nidorino and Nidorina shook their heads. "Are, are you sure?" They nodded, and Nidorino took a step forward to nudge Red, careful to lift his head enough to make sure he didn't jab Red with his horn.  
"I guess that's our cue. Come on Red, let's head back to Viridian."  
Red nodded, and said his goodbyes to the nidoran family, before the two of them started walking back down Route 22. "So why are you back down in Viridian huh Red? By the time I even got here you'd run off."  
"I needed a nidoran."  
"Huh? Why would you need a nidoran? Poison’s even worse against Brock than normal. You aren't seriously gonna try and get it all the way to Nidoking are you?"  
"They learn double kick."  
"Wait really? Well that'll help, but you coulda just caught a mankey if you needed something fighting. Or a bellsprout or something."  
"Mankey aren't easy to train."  
Blue shuddered, "Fair point. Crazy things harassed me while I was camping out up there. Hey, did you know you aren't even allowed on Route 23 without a badge? Apparently each badge you get lets you go a little bit farther until you get to Victory Road." Red shook his head. Wouldn't it be easier to just check them all at once or something? Maybe trainers gathered in their badge area to battle?   
"You ran straight to Pewter I'm guessing? Why didn't you stick around Viridian."   
Red shrugged. "I wanted to beat you."   
Blue laughed. "Well sorry I couldn't make it an actual race. There's too many grass types in there. I didn't think Squirtle could handle it. Bet they didn't even bother you did they Red? Walking through with a pokemon that's actually on fire."  
"A weedle poisoned Charmander."  
Blue whistled, "That sucks. You packed antidotes right?" Red gave him a look. Of course he did. Blue laughed, "Stupid question. So, are you sticking around here this time or are you heading up to Pewter."  
"Pewter. Someone wants to help me train Nidoran."  
"Really? That'll help give him a nice boost then." Blue stretched, "I'm gonna head over there too. I think I'm ready for the gym."  
"We're not."  
"You're not." Blue said, "Yea you beat me here, but Squirtle's made for this." He smirked, "I guess I'll be seeing you when you finally drag yourself to Cerulean. If you make it there before I'm done at least." Red just shook his head. There was no way Blue was actually going to beat Brock right? "So, wanna head through Viridian Forest together?" Blue asked. "May as well, right?" Red nodded.  
"I'll protect you from those mean grass types."  
"Hey! I have Pidgey now! I don't need help fighting grass types." Red just smiled, and Blue's cheeks turned a little red. "Honest! Grr, just you watch Red, Charmander's not even gonna need to come out of his pokeball."  
The two of them made it back to Viridian, and went straight to the pokemon center. "Hey Nurse Joy can you check on our pokemon? We had a fight out on Route 22."   
Nurse Joy smiled, "Of course." She took Red and Blue's pokemon, and since there were only four, put them in the healing machine together. She adjusted it slightly, and after a minute handed the two back their pokemon. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"  
"Yea, can we rent rooms for the night?"  
Nurse Joy punched a few keys into her computer before frowning, "We don't have that many rooms available. Would you two be willing to share?"  
Red shrugged, and Blue nodded, "Sure, we don't mind."  
"Thank you." A moment of typing, "And there. You two have room 212" Nurse Joy took a couple keycards out and handed them to the two boys, "Is there anything else?"  
"No thank you" Blue said, and Red just shook his head.  
"I hope you both have a great day."  
"You too." Blue said, and Red just smiled and nodded. "Come on Red, let's drop our stuff off. I need to go to the pokemart. Wanna come with?" Red shrugged. Why not?  
~~~~~~  
Whenever Red and Blue had a sleepover, Red was always up way before Blue. And since Blue was still snoring away in the room's other bed, that clearly hadn't changed. Red got up and took a shower and double checked his supplies, before looking at the time. Blue would have to be ready in an hour if they wanted to leave at the same time Red did last time. Red walked over and nudged him.  
Blue rolled over and held his blankets tighter. "Urgn. Five more minutes Daisy." Red nudged him again. When that didn't get a response, Red grabbed his blanket and tugged it out of the other boy's grip. Blue's eyes flickered open, "What's going on?"  
"We're heading to Pewter."  
"Huh? Pewter? Whaddya-" Blue's brain turned on enough for him to glare at Red, "Why are you waking me up so early."  
"It's only a two day trip if we leave soon."  
"Soon?"  
"Long enough to get ready and get breakfast."   
Blue glared at him, before glancing at the clock. With a groan, Blue sat up, "Fine fine." He muttered, "Gimme a minute to go get ready."  
Red just nodded. "I'll be outside." He said, before grabbing his things and heading downstairs. A nod in response to the Nurse Joy's greeting, and Red sat down on a bench outside, before tossing two pokeballs up.  
"Ran!"  
"Mander!"  
"Morning guys." Red said, "How are you feeling?"  
"Cha!" Charmander ran around in a circle, before grinning up at Red.  
"Ran!" Nidoran bounced in place and nodded.  
Red smiled. "Great." He said, "Well, after that abra up there gets ready, we're going back through Viridian Forest. Do either of you want to walk with us?"  
"Char!" Charmander nodded.  
"Ranran" Nidoran shook his head.  
"Ok, Charmander walks with us." Red said, before pulling their food out of his bag, "Now, while we wait, you two need breakfast." Red poured their food and idly watched them eat. A few other trainers were scattered around, taking care of their pokemon or just relaxing. Charmander and Nidoran finished eating, and Red put their bowls away. Blue shouldn't be too much longer-  
There he was. Still slouched and tired, but awake and ready. "Come on then." Blue muttered.  
~~~~~~  
Blue guided them to a little diner that apparently a lot of pokemon trainers at the gym went to. They say outside so Blue's pokemon could eat, and after they were done the two headed north to the forest.  
By then, Blue looked to be mostly awake, even if not the happiest about it.  
"Charmander, come on out."  
"Char!"  
Blue looked at him for a minute, before shrugging, "Come on out Squirtle."  
"Squirtle!"  
"Charmander!"  
The two pokemon greeted each other, and the little quartet started walking, Charmander and Squirtle chattering to each other seemingly non stop as they went.  
"I'm starting to see what Gramps meant by starter trios." Blue said. Red nodded, "It makes me feel bad for the bulbasaur, you know? It’s all alone back at the lab."  
"Maybe Gramps has someone lined up for it?"  
Blue shrugged, "Hope so. If he does, think he'll tell us so we can meet him?" Red shrugged. It would be great if he did. These two would definitely love to see him again.  
"Think they'll like battling?" Red asked.  
"I mean, how could you not? Battling is the best part of pokemon."  
"Maybe they just want to explore."  
"Well yea, of course you're gonna explore if you get a pokemon. Why not do battling when you do?"  
"Aren't those contest things popular over in Hoenn?"  
"That girly thing? I mean sure they are, but there's no way whoever gets that bulbasaur's gonna run off to Hoenn." Blue had a point. Still, not everyone liked battling like they did.   
"I hope they don't just keep him home as a pet." Red said, "He deserves to go on a journey too."  
"You bet he does." Blue said. The two fell silent, watching Charmander and Squirtle as the two started chasing each other up and down the path. If they went too far, either Red or Blue called them back, but besides that the two were content to let their pokemon play.  
"It still doesn't feel real." Red admitted.  
"I know." Blue laughed, "Things are going so well too I swear I'm dreaming this whole thing."  
"That's what happens when you sleep in all the time."  
"Hey! Not all of us are crazy morning people who can't stay up past 9."  
"Not all of us have to get woken up by their sister either."  
Blue glared at him, and Red smiled. It was too easy sometimes.  
"Rai!"  
"Char?!"  
"Squirtle!" Red and Blue looked up at where their two pokemon had been, and right in front of them, a raichu stood, scowling and sparking.  
"Uh oh." Blue said. "Squirtle get back here!" The water type tried to take a step, but a warning shot from the raichu stopped him. "What do we do?"  
"I guess we have to take it down." Red adjusted his hat. "Charmander, growl and cover Squirtle."  
"Squirtle water gun! Don't get hit!" Charmander's sudden aggression stalled the raichu long enough for Squirtle to blast it, and in response it shot a thunderbolt straight at the turtle. Squirtle panicked and dove to the side, barely dodging the attack, while Charmander rushed forward to scratch the electric type.  
"Rai!" The raichu's paw sparked, and it backhanded Charmander away.  
"Squirtle water gun! Give Charmander some room!"  
"Squirt!" Raichu glared at Squirtle in response, and its cheeks sparked.  
"Scratch before it can fire." Charmander jumped up and slashed at the Raichu's face, stunning it enough to stop the attack.  
"Tail whip!"  
"Squirt Tle tle squirtle!" Squirtle jeered, turning around and shaking his tail at the Raichu. Raichu's attention shifted back to him, and Charmander immediately used the opportunity to slash at its back.  
"Rai! Raichu!" Raichu's tail shot out and grabbed Charmander's arm, before he spun and flung the fire type, who slammed into the ground and skidded until he came to a stop halfway back to where Red and Blue were. Charmander started getting up, but Red returned him.  
"Peck it."  
"Nido!" Nidoran appeared a little in the air, and came down with enough force to daze the raichu.  
"Leer."  
"Ran!"  
"Get behind it and tackle!" Raichu shook its head and flinched at the surprisingly harsh look it was getting, and that gave Squirtle enough time to slam into its back and stagger it.  
"Get on its back. Don't let it get up." Nidoran jumped and slammed into the back of Raichu's head, pushing it to the ground.  
"Rai...CHU!!!" Raichu sparked, and fired a thunderbolt, sending Nidoran flying and forcing Squirtle to run for cover.  
"Squirtle water gun!" Blue ordered. "I can't get close. If Squirtle gets hit by that he's not getting back up."  
Nidoran staggered back up and scurried around the raichu until it was on the same side as Red again. Squirtle finished his water gun and ran next to him.  
"Focus energy." Red ordered. "Nidoran, we can't let up the pressure. Stay as close as you can?"  
"Ran?!"  
"You can do it buddy. Come on, let's go." Nidoran took a shaky breath, before running in towards the raichu."  
"Water gun when you have the chance! Don't hit Nidoran!"  
Nidoran harassed the raichu, staying just out of range of its tail so that it couldn't hit him, but too far for it to do much damage either. Squirtle filled that role, shooting bursts every time Raichu's back was turned. The raichu started breathing hard, before it sparked wildly.  
"Discharge!" Blue shouted, "Return!" Both Blue and Red returned their pokemon just in time, because before the laser had even vanished, the area all around Raichu exploded with electricity, flying wildly around and scarring some of the trees. Pidgey and butterfree flew away at the sudden disturbance, and it went on for almost half a minute before Raichu stopped, panting heavily and glaring at Red and Blue.  
"Charmander."  
"Pidgey!"  
Raichu looked at the two challengers, one still completely fresh, and growled, before turning and darting into the trees.  
"It’s, it’s gone." Blue said, sagging. Pidgey looked slightly confused, and Charmander muttered an explanation to it.   
Red walked over to Charmander and knelt down. "Hey buddy." He said as he pulled out a potion. Charmander grimaced slightly, but still let Red start patching him up, "You did great."  
"Yea, you guys did great. What was a monster like that doing on the path?" Red shrugged, and finished patching up Charmander, before letting Nidoran back out. He'd only taken one bad hit. Nidoran jumped at the feel of the potion, and Red had to jerk back to avoid his barbs. After calming him back down, Red finished applying the potion and got up.  
"You two did great. Get a good rest." Red returned his pokemon, and he could see Blue doing the same with Squirtle. He stood up and dusted off his pants.  
"Looks like Pidgey's gonna be taking care of us today, huh?" Blue said. Red nodded. "How much farther until the halfway point?"  
"A couple hours." Red said.  
"Then let's get going." Blue slung his bag back over his shoulder and started walking, and Red caught up a moment later. "Thanks by the way. I don't think I could've taken it alone."  
"I said I'd protect you." Red said. "It wasn't a grass type but-"  
"Hey don't act like you could've won on your own either!"  
Red and Blue bickered as they walked, tension from the raichu fading fast. When they got to the halfway point, even Red was surprised, and he'd lead them there.  
"You get wood and I'll repel?" Blue said, and Red shrugged, dropping his pack and walking around the clearing, gathering wood. Blue went the other way, spraying repel, and when they were done Red sent out Charmander to light the fire and Blue sent out Squirtle to keep him company. Red and Blue raced to put their tents up first, and Red won (Blue didn't need to know he messed up. There'd be a draft but that was fine.) Nidoran and Pidgey joined the two starters, and as the sun set all 6 of them crowded around the fire, cans of food warming up.  
"So what's Pewter like?" Blue asked.  
"Gray. It’s built into the mountains a bit."  
"Any trainers there?"  
"Most go to Viridian apparently." Red said, "Brock helps people train though."  
"Really? Man, apparently the only people who ever even see Viridian's Leader are the gym trainers and whoever's challenging him. What's Brock like?"  
"Nice. He let me borrow his geodude for target practice."  
"That's why you two could hit Pidgey so well isn't it?" Red smiled. "Well gee, it's no fair if you get private lessons from a gym leader. I got some tips from one of the gym trainers and that's about it." Red shrugged. "After I fight the gym trainer maybe I'll stick around for a little myself. Just to make sure I win against Brock."  
"Dgey." Pidgey crooned, before taking off and landing on Blue's tent. He (?) adjusted a bit, before tucking his head under his wing and going to sleep.  
"They sleep outside of their pokeballs?"  
"Only when we're not in town." Blue said, looking up at Pidgey, "I should really get her to stop sleeping up there before she evolves. Might break my tent otherwise." Still, Blue just shrugged and stretched out instead of actually stopping her.  
"Do you two wanna sleep out here?" Red asked. Nidoran nodded, curling up next to the fire pit and adjusting himself.   
Charmander pointed at Red's tent. "Cha- Ard?"  
"You're tail's on fire buddy." Red said, "You might burn it down by accident." Charmander sighed, before shaking his head. "Sorry buddy. Get a good night's rest, ok?"  
Squirtle looked at Charmander's pokeball, before looking at Gary and pointing at his. "You sure?" Nod. "Ok then. Night Squirtle." Blue got up and stretched, "I guess it’s time we went to bed too eh Red?" Red tossed a few more sticks on the fire, before getting up.  
"Night Red."  
"Night Blue."  
~~~~~~  
"I wanna challenge a gym trainer." Blue wasted no time when they got to the gym. He looked for someone with the gym logo on their clothes, and immediately ran up to the girl, who was sitting there with a rag, wiping a geodude down and occasionally switching over to one of the tools next to her to get anything stuck inside of it out. Said geodude was sitting there, eyes closed and a content look on its face.  
"Sure, just give me a few minutes ok?" She said, sanding down a jagged edge that looked like it was one good hit from falling off anyway. "How many badges do you have?"  
"None yet." Blue said, "That's gonna change soon though."  
The gym trainer humored him with a smile, "I'm sure. And how many pokemon will you be using?"  
"Two." She nodded.   
"Once I'm done with this little guy right here I'll register this." She said, before looking at Red, "Are you here to fight too?"  
Red shook his head.  
"Nah, Red's not ready for this. He started with a fire type."   
The gym trainer gave Red another look, before seeming to recognize him, "Oh you're that kid with the charmander aren't you?" Red nodded, "Liam said you ran off to get a nidoran. Seemed excited about it." She rolled her eyes, "Starter bias.” She muttered, “He should be here tomorrow." Red nodded. The girl gave the geodude one last rub down, before rolling up the tools in the now dirty rag and getting up. "I'll need your trainer card." She said to Blue. Once he handed it over, she walked off, leaving the geodude to doze.  
"One on one training from a gym leader and a gym trainer Red." Blue said, "I see how it is. Perfectly fair." Red rolled his eyes, and Blue grinned, "Guess that means you'll have no excuse when I beat you next time we fight." The two sat in silence for a minute or so, before the girl came back.  
"We're all set." She said, handing Blue his ID and guiding him to one of the chalked out training fields. When the two got in position she called out. "This will be a two on two battle between Challenger Blue Oak and Trainer Amara Akina representing the Pewter City Gym. The battle will continue until one side is defeated or if I see reason to end it prematurely. As the Challenger, you must select your pokemon first."  
"Then let's start this off with Pidgey. Go!" Blue tossed out the pokemon, and Amara nodded.  
"Let's go Geodude."   
"Geo."  
"First badge qualifier." She told the rock type who just nodded and looked at Pidgey. "Battle, begin."  
"Pidgey gust!" Pidgey flapped her wings and attacked the geodude, who took it with hardly a reaction. "Keep at it Pidgey we'll take it down eventually."  
"Rock throw. Take it out of the sky." Amara ordered. Geodude took its time slamming a fist into the ground and pulling out a rock, before flinging it up.  
"Dodge down!" The rock was aimed a little high, so if she went up it would've been worse than doing nothing. However.  
"Tackle." That left Pidgey close enough to the ground to take a hard hit from Geodude.   
"Ji!" Geodude waited and allowed Pidgey to recover and fly back up.  
"Rock throw string."  
None of them were as big as the first, but one after another rocks were flung up at Pidgey. Pidgey was dodging as best she could, but one in 3 or so would hit, knocking it off its flight path and trading some health for a precious moment's reprieve before the onslaught continued.  
Red looked at the trainers. Blue was tense, leaning forward slightly and doing his best to guide Pidgey through this. Amara was calm, studying both Blue and Pidgey and hardly ever even glancing back at her own pokemon. Her orders were rarer, either a call to ease up a little, or to tell geodude where to aim and scoring good hits. Pidgey was clearly going to get worn down quickly.  
"Grr. Pidgey dive down and tackle! Put the pressure back on them." Pidgey dove down, floundering as she got clipped in the process, but still managed to rush forward and slam into Geodude, with enough force to actually push the rock type back a little. "Good job, now gust!"  
"Tackle." Geodude moved instantly, slamming into Pidgey again and sending the bird flying. "Rock throw right above it." The rock came just as fast, moving with enough speed that it clearly would have taken out Pidgey if Amara wished it. "Pidgey is unable to battle." She said.  
"Wha-" Blue looked like he wanted to argue, especially since Pidgey got back up, but when he glanced at the rock next to him, that clearly could have hurt Pidgey, he scowled and returned the flying type. "Fine. Squirtle, let's do this!"  
"Squirtle!"  
"Water gun!"  
"Guard and run in to tackle." Geodude lifted his arms and braced, pushing bodily through the water gun and using an arm to backhand Squirtle once he got close. Squirtle went flying, but still clearly did damage, Geodude panting heavily and trying to brush the lingering water from his arms. "Geodude is unable to battle." Amara said, returning the rock type. "Let's go Geodude."  
"Another one?" Blue groaned, "Fine, we'll take this one out just like the first. Water gun!"  
"Block it." A rock came up and was held in the way of the water gun. It slowly crumbled, but just before it would have been useless, Squirtle stopped, taking a few deep breaths.  
"Run around it! Find an opening and water gun!"  
Amara allowed it, telling her geodude to grab a rock in each hand but not throwing either. It didn't even turn to look as Squirtle ran around to behind it.  
"Now! Water gun!"  
"5 o clock." Geodude spun and flung both rocks. The first one clashed with the water gun, pushing through and more importantly blocking it.  
"Dodge!" Squirtle jumped to the left. The second rock covered right.  
"Rock throw string." Just like the first one, Geodude started flinging rock after rock at Squirtle.  
"Use your shell!" Squirtle dove into his shell, and Red saw Amara nod slightly.   
"Tackle."  
"Water gun!" Both times Red had been in this situation, he'd tried carefully whittling down Squirtle while avoiding counter attacks. Amara meanwhile, tested it a few times, before calling Geodude back.  
"Start prepping rocks."  
"What?" Blue said. Geodude shoved a hand into the ground, pulling out a rock and setting it down. Then another. And another.  
"Come out of your shell or I bury you." Amara said simply.  
"You can't do tha-'' Blue paled. "Squirtle water gun quick!"  
Geodude used its latest rock to block the attack, but it wasn't as big as the first. Before the water gun ran out, the rock did, hitting Geodude hard and giving Squirtle time to take a breath before continuing. Amara watched for a moment, before acting.  
"Geodude is unable to battle." She said, "The winner is Challenger Blue Oak."  
"I won?" Blue looked at the still standing Geodude, before shrugging and grinning, "Of course I won. Come here Squirtle." Blue knelt down and rubbed the water type's head, "You did as great as we expected. Good job."  
"Tle!"  
Amara walked over to the two of them, and Red did too. "Brock does challenges Thursdays and Saturdays." She said, "Do you want me to sign you up for Thursday?"  
"Sure." Blue said.  
"Got it." Amara crossed her arms, "Now, Brock expects you to do even better when you challenge him. Figure out what you can improve and work on that for the next few days."  
"Sure." Blue said.  
"If you want, I can send you the battle video for our match. Some trainers like to study them." Amara shrugged, "I never did, but it’s up to you."  
"Yea sure." Blue said. "Thanks." Amara rolled her eyes.  
"You should take those two to the pokemon center." She said, "I've got a couple of rocks who need to hang out under the gym's sun lamp." Amara turned and started walking away, "Good luck against Brock later. You've got a training buddy here. Use it."  
~~~~~~  
"You got one?" Liam grinned when he saw Red the next day. Red nodded, and tossed the pokeball up.  
"Ran!" Liam looked down at Nidoran, who squeaked and scurried behind Red.  
"Shy one is he?" Red nodded, and Liam knelt down, "Don't worry little guy, I'm not gonna hurt you. In fact, I've got someone for you to meet." Liam grabbed a pokeball from his side and opened it.  
"Rino!"  
"Ran?"  
"This guy's Nidorino. He's my partner. We promised Red we'd help train you nice and strong. You ready?" Liam put his hand out, and Nidoran glanced up at Red. Red nodded, and Nidoran eased forward. Liam gave him a gentle pet, before pulling back. "If he's anything like mine, pet the back of his ears. He won't let you unless he trusts you, but it turns this guy to putty." Red nodded. "What moves does he know?"  
"Peck, leer, and focus energy." Red mumbled.  
"No poison sting?" Red shook his head. "Well before we get into double kick I think we should help him learn that. He's got a good horn on him, and it'll be a lot easier to hit than poison point. You hear that Nidorino? Think you can show him how that works?"  
"Rino!" Nidorino nodded, before walking closer to Nidoran and starting to talk.  
"I could tell you, but it's a whole lot easier for them to explain it themselves." Liam said. "How much do you know about Nidoran anyway?"  
"There were a few at gram- I mean Professor Oak's Ranch." Red said. "He didn't like us playing with poison types." Red smiled when he remembered the huge rubber gloves that reached almost all the way up his arm that Gramps made him wear when he did actually go near one.  
"Probably smart of him." Liam admitted. "Well, lemme tell you how to keep this guy healthy while they chat." Liam guided Red away from the two nidorans, giving them enough space for Nidorino to safely jab forward, a few drops of poison flying to the ground and sizzling slightly. Nidoran tried to do it himself, but nothing happened. "Poison's stored in the back, so it’s pretty much automatic for them to get you if it scratches you with the barbs. Ain't hard, but he's gotta figure out how to put enough in his horn to attack, but not so much he wastes it." Red nodded. "Once he gets that, you can try and teach him to kinda 'fence' with it. It’s not that big now, but as he uses it it'll grow. Their kicks are strong, but the horn's always gonna be their main weapon." Red nodded. That made sense. He probably could've figured that out on his own though. "Caring for them isn't that bad for a poison type. As long as you don't get pricked, touching them's perfectly safe. Make sure he knows before you touch him just in case. Besides that, the biggest thing's those ears." Liam tapped his own, "As kids, their mom usually cleans them, and when they grow up it’s their mate. A male nidoran's hearing is really important to ‘em, so once every month or so you need to clean ‘em. Give him a treat and grab a Q tip and just be gentle. Real sensitive. If he ever needs a bath make sure you clean them then too." Nidoran managed to shoot poison, but instead of dripping, it shot out, doing little damage to Nidorino except by landing in his eye and momentarily blinding him.  
"Ease up a little bud." Red said. "Take a breath and go slow." Nidoran took a breath and closed his eyes. After a minute, a drip of purple poison caught the light, and Nidoran stabbed forward. It was a little heavier than Nidorino's, but it was remarkably close. "Good job. Now try and do it again." Nidorino said some kind of encouragement, and the two went back to practicing.  
"Not bad, kid." Red adjusted his hat and looked down.  
"It's how Charmander learned ember."  
Liam smiled, "And you're already helping teach Nidoran. Speaking of the little guy, want me to go grab that geodude so he can practice?"  
Red shook his head, "Blue wants to train Pidgey to dodge."  
"Blue?"  
"Oh, right, you haven't seen him. He's my friend."   
Liam nodded.  
"Two birds with one stone? Or is it two pidgeys with one ember in this case?" Red just shook his head at the bad joke, even as Liam laughed at himself. Nidoran seemed to be getting poison sting at least a little more consistently, and Nidorino used that as a reason to start showing him how to use his horn better, slowly showing him how to block with it or stab without getting any closer than necessary.  
"Is there," Red cleared his throat, "anything else? That I should know?"  
"Yea. You see, Nidoran's bellies are..."  
~~~~~~  
"Blue Oak. Blue Oak. Brock is ready for your badge challenge." Blue got up from where he and Red were sitting, watching Charmander and Nidoran spar. Nidoran was doing better, but every time Charmander started firing off embers, he hesitated and gave the fire type space. Red would have to teach him how to get past that somehow.  
"Well guess I'm up. See ya after I get my badge Red." Blue boasted.  
"Good luck."  
"Luck? Ha! I don't need it. Me and my pokemon are gonna do great!" As Blue walked away, Red's eyes narrowed. He was nervous, as much as he tried to hide it. Red glanced back down to see Nidoran just barely miss Charmander, before calling for a pause.  
"We're gonna go see Blue's match ok guys? We'll be fighting Brock soon, so pay attention."  
"Char!"  
"Ran!"  
The stands at the far end of the gym were about half full, a bunch of people apparently coming down to watch Brock take on challengers. Blue made his way to the challenger's square and grabbed a pokeball, tossing it up and catching it. He didn't quite have the move down, cause he had to reach out to grab it instead of letting it just land back in his hand.  
Brock was waiting for him, standing stock still with his arms crossed. "I'm Brock, the Pewter City Gym Leader. I believe in a rock solid defense. My pokemon are nearly impervious to attacks. Show me your best."  
"You've got it." Blue said. Amara stood to the side, clearly taking on the role of judge for the battle.  
"This will be a gym badge battle between Challenger Blue Oak and Gym Leader Brock Harrison of the Pewter City Gym. The challenger will be using two pokemon against the gym leader's four."  
"Four?!" Blue's eyes widened and he took a step back. A few of the people in the crowd looked surprised, but the majority did little more than raise an eyebrow.  
"Yes. Brock will be using four pokemon against you." Amara repeated. "The battle will go on until one side is defeated, and pokemon will only be withdrawn when they are fainted. Only the challenger may substitute pokemon. Leader, are you ready."  
"Yes." Brock grabbed a pokeball from his waist, the first movement he'd made since Blue got to the field.  
"Challenger, are you ready?"  
"Of course! I guess this just means it'll actually be a challenge."  
"Leader, the first pokemon is yours."  
"Geodude, go."  
"Pidgey, come on out!"  
"Challenger, the first move is yours."  
Blue stared the rock type down for a moment, before speaking, "Take to the sky. Gust when you have the chance!"  
"Rock throw." Brock said. The command wasn't even finished before a rock flew up at Pidgey. Pidgey banked left, dodging the rock and shot off a gust. Geodude was pushed back, but on Brock's order flung another rock at Pidgey.  
And for a while, that's how the battle went. Pidgey had gotten a bit better at dodging thanks to a few days practice with Charmander, and while it was clipped a few times, more and more damage was being racked up on Geodude. It wasn't as strong as the one Amara had used before. It couldn't tank as many hits, and despite its stoic facade it was slowing slightly, taking a little longer to throw a rock a little lower. Pidgey was getting tired though. It just didn't have nearly the stamina Geodude did, and Blue started telling it to dive down just so it would save a little more energy. One of them had to give soon."  
"Dude." And it wasn't Blue's pokemon.  
"Geodude is unable to battle. Leader, send out your next pokemon."  
"Geodude, go."  
"Come on Pidgey keep it up!" The battle seemed to drag on, Pidgey doing its best to keep going just a little longer, to do just a little more, but Geodude seemed unshakable. Blue may as well have been fighting a mountain for all the progress he seemed to make.  
"Rock throw." And finally, Pidgey was too tired to get out of the way. The rock hit hard, and Pidgey went flying far enough for the gym's auto return feature to kick in before she could slam into the far wall. Blue winced, and Red saw him mouth something to himself.  
"Challenger, send out your next pokemon."  
"Now!" Blue didn't hesitate. The moment Squirtle was out, before the light was even done shining, the water type fired a water gun straight into Geodude. The rock type was sent backwards, and hit the ground with a thud, rolling to a stop a foot from Brock.  
"Geodude is unable to battle. Leader, send out your next pokemon."  
"Geodude, go." Brock was down two pokemon, but it certainly didn't feel it. Blue was still here staring down the same rocky face, the same stoic stature, the same uncompromising mountain. He was sweating, the harsh gym lights shining down hard on him.  
Red had watched Brock fight before, but it wasn't the same. Those were high level matches where people had spent years learning how to exploit the tiniest hole in even Brock's rock solid defense. Each one of their pokemon only needed to take out one of Brock's. Blue didn't have that. He had a few weeks practice and a squirtle that had to take down two of Brock's pokemon.  
"Water gun!"  
"Block it." Just like Amara's geodude, Brock's used a rock to block the attack. Red watched it crumble, and before it could fall apart completely Geodude threw it forward to give himself time to bring another to the fore. Squirtle held as long as he could, but the moment the stream weakened, Brock was ready. "Throw." The remaining rock was flung, slamming into Squirtle as he tried to catch his breath.  
"Squirtle!"  
"Squirtle!" Blue echoed his pokemon as the water type hit the ground. It took a moment for the water type to get up and clear his head, and Brock was merciful enough to grant it. "You ok?"  
"Tle!" Squirtle gave him a thumbs up, and Blue said something, too soft for Red to hear from the stands. Squirtle turned and looked over its shoulder at Geodude, shaking its tail and jeering. Tail whip? It must have worked, because Geodude frowned and, for the first time and without Brock's orders, charged forward to tackle him.  
"Now!" Squirtle rolled to the side and took a breath, barely dodging the rock type and firing a water gun straight into its side. Geodude flipped, slamming top first into the ground and trying to use a hand to brace itself, but after a moment it stilled.  
"Geodude is unable to battle. Leader, send out your next pokemon."  
"You've done well to make it this far." Brock said. "But this ends here. Onix! Go!" Blue paled. Squirtle staggered back and almost fell. To say it towered over Squirtle would be an understatement. The onix dwarfed him completely, casting both Blue and his starter in shade.  
Blue had been right there with Red when they watched matches after all. They both knew what Brock's Onix were capable of. They'd seen one of them sweep half a team before, and look ready to sweep the rest.  
"Squirtle-" Blue took a breath, "Squirtle, water gun!"  
"Tackle." Onix went through it. Right through the water attack that was super effective twice over and slammed into Squirtle and made half the people in the stands wince. Squirtle went flying far enough to be forcefully returned.  
"Challenger, send out your next pokemon."  
"Pidgey, pidgey go!" Blue sent back out the already half finished flying type. Pidgey seemed to look around for its opponent for a moment, before realizing that the 20 foot pile of rocks WAS its opponent.  
"JI?!"  
"You can do it Pidgey. Come on, take to the sky!" Pidgey flinched, but Brock gave her enough time to follow the order.  
"Tackle."  
"Dodge it!" Pidgey had at least gotten a bit of rest in its pokeball. Enough to end up above the rock snake when it lunged at least. "Gust!" Wind slammed into onix as Pidgey flapped its wings as hard as it could.  
It wasn't enough.  
At a word, Onix's head slammed down, and its tail shot out. Pidgey tried to dodge, but went the wrong way.  
Crack!  
"Pidgey is unable to battle. Challenger, send out your next pokemon."  
Squirtle came back out. "Get on its back!"  
"Stop it." Onix slammed its tail down to block Squirtle's path, but Squirtle jumped, landing on the tail and running up the rock snake pokemon.  
"Water gun as you go!"  
"Bide."  
"Bide?! Squirtle stop!" The damage was done though. "Squirtle Get back! Hide in your shell!" There wasn't much 'back' to get though. Not with how big Onix was.  
"Now." Onix glowed white, and slammed its head into the ground in front of Squirtle. The field was torn apart, rocks flying everywhere, and a little brown and blue dot was mixed in there, slammed between the rocks as they flew up. And back down. A quarter of the field was replaced with rubble, and it seemed a miracle that Squirtle was on top of it.  
And that it was able to poke its head out of its shell, wincing and grimacing, but able.  
"Squirtle water gun! You can do it!" Squirtle didn't even get up. He fired from his spot in his shell, slamming into the rock type as it recovered from its last attack.  
"Onix." And the rock type went down. It wasn't instant, and even when it did fall it was slow enough a part of Red wasn't sure if it really fainted or if it just got bored of the fight.  
Still...  
"Onix is unable to battle. The winner is Challenger Blue Oak!"  
Red watched as Brock and Amara went over to where Blue was standing. Watched Brock give Blue a badge and a TM, but his mind was elsewhere.  
How in the world was he going to fight an Onix?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for reading! This chapter was a little combat focused, so tell me what you think.  
> On FFN, I received a comment telling me Red seemed underprepared. Yes, he does seem that way, and I can see why it would be annoying. My thought process behind it was that Red is still a novice. He's got theoretical knowledge, but he still isn't used to actually doing it. He'll get better as it goes on, but think of this like a kid's first pokemon game. Even if he's above average, he still has a long way to go. I hope that the slow start isn't a deal breaker for anyone, and that you'll stick around.  
> Next chapter is late Monday the 18th. I hope everyone has a great day.


	4. Tournament Arc I

Blue left after he got his badge, probably going to the pokemon center. Red stayed still, watching the next few matches. None of the next 3 people who saw an onix beat it. It didn't seem to matter how hard they hit it, the onix just would not go down.  
But they did do their best. The first one had a machoke as his main answer to Brock's rock types. It hit hard, but the only time Red saw the onix react was when it hit right between two of the rocks that made it up.  
The second was hardly worth mentioning. They had a pikachu that wasn't nearly fast enough or strong enough to do any meaningful damage before getting sent flying. The trainer surrendered instead of sending back out his already exhausted spearow.  
The last tried to wear it out. They had a flareon, and as soon as they saw onix they trapped it in fire spin and tried to avoid it. Moves to make Onix attack less, moves to make it hit softer, even protect apparently. That Onix looked tired, but it still won.  
Red got up and went back to the training area. Liam was busy helping someone else, so Red sat down, idly waiting for him to be free while he planned. Red couldn't outmuscle an onix. That just wasn't going to happen. Nidoran learning double kick would help, but it would probably be better if Charmander learned metal claw just in case. At the very least it would be another tool to use. Metal claw wasn't anything like ember or poison sting though, so he'd probably have to ask Liam for help there. As for his plan in the battle itself.  
Well, the most important thing was probably not to get hit. Neither of his pokemon was defensive enough to shrug off a hit from onix.  
Liam walked away from the person he'd been helping, and Red followed him.  
"Hey kid. How'd Blue do?"  
"He won." somehow. "I need help."  
"What were you thinking?"  
"Big rocks." Red said, "Something for my pokemon to dodge."  
Liam smiled, "Onix?" Red nodded, "Rock tomb's as close as you can get without actually going up against one of those guys." Liam looked at Red for a moment, "For now you're gonna have to stick with a geodude tossing them your way. Won't be near as big, but I can't leave you unattended with a graveler. Brock'd have my hide if I even went near the golems for this, and that's the only way you're getting rocks as big as an onix. Red nodded. "I'll go grab one of the rock tomb geodudes. Place is too busy for me to help with a graveler today, so you're gonna have to get used to it with something smaller." Liam turned to leave.  
"Wait."  
"Hm?"  
"How do I teach Charmander metal claw?"  
"Was wondering when you'd ask that one. Follow me, you can check out a metal coat. I need your ID." Check out a metal coat? Red handed over his ID, and Liam walked off towards the back room. After a few minutes, he came back, trailed by a graveler holding onto a foot wide slab of solid metal. When they got to Red, the graveler set it down with a surprisingly loud thud, before Liam told it to head back to the other room. "Metal coats are some of the purest metals we can harvest outside of pulling it off a pokemon." Liam explained, "Send Charmander out."  
Red complied "Char!"  
Liam nodded, "Learning a steel type attack is more like a fire type attack than you’d think. You need to figure out how it feels. You could just go grab the bleachers and do this, but its way easier with a metal coat. Let me know when you're gonna leave and I'll have a pokemon bring it back.” He grabbed a pokeball from his side and released a geodude, "Geodude has rock tomb and bulldoze so you can reset the ground every now and then." Liam glanced around, "Good luck kid. If you need anything let me know." Red nodded, and Liam walked away.  
"Nidoran." Red sent out the poison type and knelt down. "We're gonna be working on your speed today, ok?"  
"Ran."  
"The goal is to tag Geodude, is that ok?" Red asked, looking at the rock type, who just shrugged. "He'll be putting big rocks in your way." Nidoran nodded, and at Red's prompting, ran about the length of a battlefield and looked back at Red. "Ready. Go." Instead of pulling rocks from the ground, Geodude summoned them, less throwing them and more letting the rocks fly out in Nidoran's direction. Nidoran dodged, ducked, dipped, dove and dodged, trying his best to get closer, but the longer it took and the more he hesitated, the less possible it seemed, until Red called it. Geodude floated over and cleared the debris, before the two returned to their positions and went another round.  
Red turned his attention to Charmander, whose face was scrunched up in concentration. "Take it slow." Red said. Instead of trying all at once maybe... "Try to imagine the feel of the metal spreading up your arm." Charmander nodded, his eyes not opening. Red watched, waiting for any sign of progress and periodically glancing up at Nidoran and Geodude. Nidoran made it a little closer that time, and Red called a reset again.  
It took maybe a half hour for the first glimpse of silver to appear on Charmander's claws, but there wasn't anything beyond that until, another hour later, Nidoran was too tired to do another attempt. Red let the poison type curl up in his lap, and sent Charmander to do rock tomb drills instead. The fire type had been getting frustrated, and metal claw needed him to get close anyway.  
~~~~~~  
They were making progress. Nidoran's problem was being too scared to commit, so he would get walled out by rock tombs until Red called for a reset. Charmander meanwhile, would rush in so quickly that he wouldn't even realize he was cornered until he turned to dodge the one right in front of him. So that was what Red had to work on. With Nidoran, he had to look attention for openings, and trust Nidoran to react fast enough when he gave an order to push. With Charmander, he was watching the pokemon's back, warning him when there were traps set up and how to evade them before they got too tight. Nidoran was able to 'tag' Geodude first, and that motivated Charmander to try even harder.  
Now they just had to make it consistent.  
"Under."  
"Ran!" Nidoran dove under a rock just before it hit the ground, and bounced up to push off of the one following it. Counterclockwise around Geodude, reaching the edge of their area-  
"Back." Nidoran turned early and caught geodude off guard "Over."  
"Nido!" Nidoran jumped off a rock and lunged for geodude-  
"DUDE!"  
"RAN!"  
Only for one last rock to appear in the way and Nidoran to slam hard into it. Red winced, and Nidoran staggered for a moment before shaking his head and clearing it.  
"Sorry buddy." Red said, fighting his way through the debris to get to Nidoran and Geodude, "He's a little faster than I thought."  
"Ran ran."  
"You're doing well." Red looked back to see Brock weaving his way through and sometimes over the terrain with practiced ease. "Nidoran don't usually have to go through terrain like this. He's adapting admirably."  
"Thank you si- er, Brock." Brock nodded  
"Right now, the most important thing you and your pokemon need is experience. There's a tournament on Monday. You should sign up."  
"O-ok." A tournament? Obviously it wasn't open for trainers with 8 badges or Brock wouldn't have bothered mentioning it to him, but 1? 2? Even 3? Red couldn't help but be a little nervous.  
Brock nodded, before his eyes flicked to the side, "Your charmander will probably have metal claw ready by then. At least enough to use." Red followed Brock's gaze to where Charmander was standing, a faint silvery sheen on his hand. Charmander lifted his hand, and scrunched up his face. It held for another moment, before the silver vanished and Charmander scowled. "Once he can hold it for a second, start trying to summon it without touching the metal coat."   
Red nodded. "Thank you."  
"Any time." Brock said, before turning and making his way back out of the debris zone. Red watched him leave, before scooping Nidoran up and clambering out himself.  
"Geodude, can you clear it up for us?"  
"Dude." After Geodude finished cleaning up, Red set Nidoran down and they went through another round.   
And another.  
And another.  
And they went until Nidoran was too tired to continue for the afternoon. He tagged Geodude 7 times out of 16. That morning his score was 3 out of 10.  
Then it was Charmander's turn, and they ended with 5 out of 12 compared to the morning’s 1 out of 8.  
Red asked a gym trainer to help put the metal coat back when he returned the geodude, and left his two tired pokemon curled up on the bleachers while he went to the message board. There, right in the middle was a poster for a 'Progression Tournament' Monday through Wednesday. First the people with no badges like him would go, then the top four would get added in with the people with one badge. Then two, then three, until the people with 8 at the end. Moving on gave a small prize too.  
That... wasn't that bad. Red had been worried about fighting people way above him, but he wouldn't have to worry about that. Red smiled. He could do that. Red went back to his pokemon and waited for one of the gym trainers to be free, before going over to them and hesitantly asking if he could register. It only took a couple minutes for them to sign him up.   
Red had two more days to train before the tournament. Charmander should have metal claw by then, but Nidoran wasn't going to have double kick. He just about had poison sting though, so they'd at least have that up their sleeve.  
Get to the one badge round. That was Red's goal. If Blue could beat Brock, Red at the very least could go that far.  
~~~~~~  
"Ah man, there's a tournament?" Blue leaned back in his chair. "Nurse Joy said my pokemon are gonna need to rest until Tuesday just to be safe. Onix is a freaking monster."  
"Are they ok?"  
"Pidgey's got a sprained wing and Squirtle's got a minor concussion. Gonna be fine, they just need to heal."  
The two of them were sitting in a little restaurant on the north side of Pewter. Red had, as usual, gotten up early and was at the gym when they opened training. Blue showed up at about 1, and since Charmander and Nidoran were both getting tired, Red asked Liam to watch them while he went with Blue to lunch.  
"You have a plan on how you're gonna beat it?" Red nodded. "And you're not gonna tell me are you?" Red shook his head, and smiled when Blue scowled. "Can I at least guess?" Red shrugged, and Blue hummed for a moment as he thought.  
"Don't give it room to attack?"  
Nope.  
"Try and make it hit itself?"  
Not that.  
"Burn it and survive?"  
Well, if he could get the burn that would help.  
Blue guessed again and again while they waited for their food, and after it was delivered he groaned, "Just tell me!"  
"You'll have to wait and see." Red said, taking a drink to hide his smile at Blue's obvious frustration.  
"I'm leaving before then!" Blue sighed, "Fine. Can you at least share the recording with me?"  
"I guess I could." Blue rolled his eyes, and the conversation stilled as the two ate.   
"It has something to do with that rock tomb training doesn't it? That's for more than just speed." Red stayed still until he saw Blue getting antsy, before slowly nodding.  
"Why do I hang out with you again?"  
"Everyone else said no?"  
"Hey! It's not like everyone likes hanging around with the kid who barely says three words in a day."  
Red looked down a bit and shrugged, "I don't get people."  
"I've noticed." Blue said in a deadpan, before adding. "Want some advice?"  
"No."  
Blue laughed, "Listen, next time someone calls you out for it, you know what you say? You do that hat thing you do and you tell 'em 'Words are unnecessary.' All mysterious like. No one'll question it. I guarantee it."  
Red adjusted his hat and looked past Blue straight at the wall of the restaurant. "Words are unnecessary."  
...  
...  
...  
They broke at the same time, laughing to the point where Red saw someone in the corner of his eye give them a look. It still took another few seconds for them to calm down enough to speak.  
"Oh my god can you imagine?"  
"I wouldn't do that if you paid me."  
"Oh my god the look on people's faces if you actually did though." Blue wiped the tears from his eyes and took a couple breaths to smother the giggles that were still fighting their way to the surface.  
"I don't know if the Champion could get away with something that stupid." Red said. "Mew that's awful."  
"Come on you could pull it off." Blue leaned back, "Be that mysterious champion who never does interviews. Get 'em real antsy. Save the region or something and finally get trapped by a camera crew when your team's too tired to get you out of there. It could work." The two devolved back into snickers.  
"What about you? Champion who’s got his own radio station so people can hear you talk twenty-four seven?"  
"I could do it." Blue argued, "I've had years of practice with Mr. 'Too cool for words' over here." The two finished eating, probably to the relief of the other customers. When they were done, they headed outside and stopped.  
"Well since I'm not allowed to train I'm gonna go explore Pewter. Maybe check out the museum." Blue said, "You're heading back to the gym I'm guessing?"  
Red nodded. "Not all of us started with an onix counter. I've got to actually train to beat it."  
"Keep telling yourself that's why." Blue said, "Smell ya later Red."  
"Bye Blue." Red watched Blue turn and walk away for a minute, before heading back towards the gym. When he got inside, Red's eyes immediately started scanning the area. Where were they... There. Red walked over to one side, where Liam and Charmander were sitting, idly watching Nidoran play tag with Nidorino. Charmander perked up when he saw Red, running over and beaming at him when Red was barely halfway there. Red smiled and pet the fire type, before walking over to Liam.  
"Hey kid. How was lunch?"  
"Good." Red said. "Thanks for watching them."  
"No prob. Trainers leave pokemon here all the time. Pokeballs are useful and all, but they need fresh air too. Besides, none of the regulars have a nidoran. Gotta let him socialize while I can don't I?" Liam got up and stretched, "So, ready to get back to training?" Red nodded.  
"You're doing pretty good with the dodging thing now." Liam said, "What was the tally for this morning?"  
"Fourteen out of twenty." Red said, "Charmander's at nine for sixteen."  
"Gym's quiet today, so I've got time to take a graveler out for you. You wanna up the challenge before going back to learning moves?" Red nodded, and Liam grinned, "'I'll be right back."  
"Nidoran." Red said, and the smaller poison type stopped chasing Nidorino and ran over to Red. Red knelt down next to his pokemon, "Liam's going to get us a graveler to practice with. It's gonna be a lot harder this time. Are you two ready?"  
"Char!" Charmander flashed him a thumbs up.  
"Ran." Nidoran nodded, but Red could see him shifting a bit, nervous.  
"It'll be fine buddy." Red said, "Liam and graveler aren't gonna hurt you. All you've got to do is the same thing we did earlier." Nidoran still didn't look confident, but he at least gave a firmer head nod than before. Red smiled, and looked up to see Liam coming back, a pokeball in hand.  
"Come on out graveler." Liam said.   
"Ler."  
"You ready kid?"  
Red nodded, "Nidoran." The poison type took a few steps forward, and the graveler walked away, putting a battlefield's space between them.  
"Graveler, rock tombs only. Delay not strike." Liam ordered. "Whenever you're ready, kid."  
Red took a breath. "Now." Nidoran darted forward, getting a few feet in before graveler had a chance to react.  
Geodude, when it used rock tomb, was only able to summon boulders a little bit bigger than itself, double at the most. Nidoran only had to jump its own height to clear them, or make one bound to the side to go around them. Graveler however, started things off by summoning boulders three times that size.  
"Ran?!" Nidoran panicked and ran sideways, getting out of the way at the cost of all his forward momentum. Round and around it went. Red only saw a couple openings, and while Nidoran made it a lot closer each time he took one of them, it was only a matter of time before he got cornered, barely halfway to graveler.  
"Time!" Liam said, "Clear the field Graveler."  
"Nidoran, come here." Red watched as Nidoran took a running leap to clear a boulder. How were they going to get past these? Nidoran jumped between rocks to make it back out over the maze, and Red smiled. Well he was overthinking that. "Nidoran, this time let's go over them, ok buddy?"  
"Ran?"  
"When I say go, I want you to get on top of the rocks. It'll be a lot harder to stop you like that."  
"Ran."  
"Ready for round two, kid?" Red nodded, and Nidoran jumped back onto the field. "Move's yours."  
"Now." This time Graveler was more prepared, so Nidoran didn't get as much of a head start before rocks started landing. Red was more comfortable telling Nidoran to take a path that would bring him back and away from Graveler if it kept him from getting cornered. All he needed was.... a bit of a straightway. "Behind you, go." Nidoran stopped and took off the other way, leaping up and on top of the rock Graveler used to try and slow him down. Graveler stilled, and Nidoran crossed half the field in a few moments  
"Tear them back down." Liam ordered. Graveler summoned another rock tomb, and rather than put one in front of Nidoran, he launched it right at the boulder Nidoran was aiming for, shattering it and leaving Nidoran with no ground beneath his paws.  
"Nido!" Two more rock tombs slammed down in front of the poison type, and Liam called the round. Three quarters.  
"Not bad kid." Liam said, "Won't work for Charmander, but Nidoran's agile enough to go up if he needs to. You're gonna need to go back down sometimes too though." Red nodded. Graveler reset the field, and Nidoran got back in position. "Whenever you're ready."  
It took two more tries for Nidoran to tag graveler. They went at it for another hour and a half, and only got 3 tags out of 10. Then Nidoran and Nidorino went off while Charmander had a turn. He only got 1 tag out of 9. That only happened because Red was able to sneak Charmander out of sight and catch Graveler off guard. Charmander was slower and more committal. He didn't do well at closing distance at all.  
That just meant that Charmander would have to support Nidoran against Brock and his onix.   
~~~~~~  
"The thing about fighting moves is that they aren't much different from normal ones." Liam explained. Nidorino and Nidoran were out, standing next to their respective trainers while all four apparently ignored the boulder almost to Red's neck just like they had since Liam told a sandslash to make it five minutes ago. "There's no special energy or anything that makes one hit fighting and another normal. The only difference between a regular kick." Nidorino turned and slammed a foot into the boulder, rocking it, but doing nothing else. "And a double kick" Nidorino jumped a bit, turning and slamming one foot into the rock hard enough to crack it, before twisting and slamming his other in at the same spot, making the crack grow until the whole thing fell in two. "Is technique." With double kick, you're pressing all your force into one spot, and then doing it again. Make sense?"  
Red nodded.  
"Nidoran, copy Nidorino's stance." Liam said. Nidoran nodded, before adjusting how he was standing a bit. Nidorino walked over and nudged one of his feet, before standing in front of him again, "It's easier to do it on the ground, so we'll be showing you that first. Nidorino, slow." Nidorino bounced his back half and jabbed one foot out, before yanking it back in time to land neatly. "Nidoran, you try."  
"Ran." Nidoran tensed for a moment, before hopping up and kicking out. He went a little too high, and he wasn't quite fast enough to land how Nidorino did.  
"Kick with your claws." Liam said, "They're meant to take abuse, the top of your foot isn't." Nidoran nodded and tried again, landing a little neater this time. Liam nodded, "Now you've just got to practice. Once you can get the first kick in, you can actually try and make it a double kick."  
"Ran." Nidoran nodded, and tried to kick out again. He landed, and before he could make another attempt, Nidorino barked an order and Nidoran adjusted his footing. A nod gave him the signal to try again.  
"There really isn't much more to it than that. Fighting moves are simple on paper, but take practice to actually get right." Liam said, "We can leave them to it for now."  
Red nodded, and looked over to where Charmander was standing. His eyes were closed, and he had a hand out. After what was probably ten seconds, his hand started to glow and he opened his eyes.  
"Char!" Liam had brought out a wobbuffet shaped punching bag, and Charmander slashed at it with the metal claw, sending the dummy bouncing back and forth a few times.   
"Good job Charmander." Red smiled at his starter, who beamed in response, his tail flickering merrily. "Now let's get it even faster, ok?"  
"Cha!" Charmander cried, before closing his eyes and taking a breath. This time it took a little longer, probably an extra couple seconds, before Charmander used the attack. He scowled.  
"It's ok Charmander. We just need to practice."  
"Char!" Charmander nodded, before trying again. 9 seconds. Red smiled at his pokemon, before stepping back to let him focus. He stood there in silence, watching his two pokemon work.  
"Yea, this happens sometimes." Liam said. "As the trainer you've got to show them what moves to learn, what crazy combos to use, but there's always gonna be time where you've just got to sit back and let them figure it out."  
"I feel like I should be, I don't know..." Red trailed off.  
"It's worse when you've only got a couple. At least when you get more you can bounce between them giving advice, but for now all you can do is watch." Red nodded, and the two of them trailed off for a few minutes. Nidoran did the first kick properly, and was trying to make that actually consistent. Charmander got a metal claw to happen in 3 seconds, but his average was still hovering at about 5.  
"I never told you about the tournament did I?" Liam said.  
"Brock mentioned it yesterday."  
"He did? Well, how do you feel about it?"  
"Nervous."  
"What's your goal?"  
"Pass on to the one badge group."  
"Sounds doable." Red hoped it was. They fell silent again.   
Charmander's best was one second, his average down to 4. Nidoran was getting the first kick maybe one in 5 times.  
"I think you can do it." Liam said. "Don't mean to sound cocky, but I've been putting a lot of time into you, so..." Liam gave him a smile that Red hesitantly returned. "I mean it. If you had a better matchup you'd probably be in Mount Moon by now."  
"Blue isn't yet."  
"Well Blue didn't get training by the best Nidoran trainer in Pewter now did he?" Red let out a small laugh.  
"Thanks."  
"No prob kid.” Liam rolled his shoulders, “Make sure you stick around till day 2 though. Then you’ll get to see what me and Nidorino can do.”  
"You’re competing?"  
"If there’s loose spots and one of us is at about that level, we fill it.” Liam explained, “I’m with the six badge group. I’d say wish me luck, but I’m not gonna need it.”  
~~~~~~  
Red hadn't seen Pewter Gym this busy. There were probably a hundred people in here, half of them trainers, mingling about and chatting. Red crept past them, heading over to the big TV screen to the side that said 'Registration Here' Amara was running it, and Red had to wait in line for a couple minutes.  
"Name?"  
"Red Kiro." She nodded, and checked him off.  
"Got it. Your first match is on field 3, but you're in the last batch. Take your time, but keep an ear out, k?" Red nodded and walked away. That would give Blue time to wake up if he wanted to come down and watch at least. Red looked around idly. Matches weren't going to start for another fifteen minutes, and when they did he could watch those. Should he just sit and wait until then? Red started walking towards the bleachers. Probably. What else did he have to do? He'd checked on Charmander and Nidoran when he fed them before heading over.  
"Hey kid." Red jumped and turned around. "This is your first tournament isn’t it?" Red nodded. "Don't stress it too much. This is just a small one. No stakes to it." Red nodded slowly. There were still a lot of people. Liam must have seen his nerves and guided Red over to the bleachers, "Here's a tip. Don't think about how many other people there are. That number's always crazy big and it doesn't matter. Think about how many rounds you've gotta clear. I wanna say there were about 30 no badge people or something. That means you've only got to win 3 times to get to the next round. All these people, but the important number's 3. Make sense?" Three. Three wins sounded doable. Red nodded.  
"There's so many people." He muttered.  
"Lot of 'em stay out on the routes." Liam said, "Some of them are just visiting Pewter for this though. There's a town off Route 3 without a gym that sends em up here." Red nodded. The speaker flared to life, and Amara told everyone to clear the field. "Unless something special happens, We usually commentate the field closest to the announcer's area." Liam pointed over at the desk Amara had been registering people at. Brock was there now, sitting next to her as they waited for the matches to start, "Pay attention to them, but don't ignore the other battles." Liam got up and stretched, "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go handle crowds." He said, “Good luck.”  
“Thank you.” Red said softly.  
“You can thank me by beating one of the first badge trainers. I bet Amara 20 bucks you could." That earned a small laugh out of Red, and he sat down to wait for the matches to start.  
After a few minutes, the speaker blared and announced the first fights. Now that it was clear, Red could see the four chalk drawn battlefields that took up maybe half of the gym with ten feet of space between them. They weren’t perfectly flat, Red noted. There were maybe 5 rocks in each arena, scattered around randomly and ranging from a 2 foot circle buried halfway through one, to a one that stretched almost the length of the arena that the chalk outline actually went over. Well, they were in a rock gym, Red said with a shrug. It made sense they’d spice things up with a few rocks right?  
The first few fights weren't particularly special. Three of them had weedle or caterpie, two a rattata, one had a pidgey, and the last two had a sandshrew and a pikachu. If the pidgey trainer hadn't gotten paired up against pikachu, Red thought they probably would've moved on, and Brock agreed apparently. The person with the sandshrew looked more comfortable than the rest with crowds, which definitely helped him. The next batch had a couple of nidoran that Red watched closely, along with a cleffa and a bellsprout. Red couldn't help but be disappointed that one of the other people with a nidoran lost, but there wasn't much it could do against a zubat. The only thing interesting in the next batch was a kid with an eevee and another with a butterfree, and it was during those matches that Blue sat down next to him, a cup of hot chocolate in his hands that he said wasn't that good, even though the statement was followed by him gulping down half of it.  
"Red Kiro vs. Ben Hiroto on field 3."  
"Good luck Red." Blue muttered. Red adjusted his hat and stepped down to the field. Ben was probably a year or two older than Red, and was wearing shorts and a sideways hat.   
"I like shorts, they're comfy and easy to wear." Ben said. O...k? Red nodded slowly.  
"Trainers, select your pokemon. Ready. Set. Go."  
"Charmander."  
"Ekans!" An ekans? Red wasn’t expecting that. It would want to get close and wrap him up, so...  
"Ember. Keep it away."  
"Get in close and wrap!" The ekans was fast, but Charmander was getting pretty good with ember. While they weren't all hitting, he was firing enough of them that the snake couldn't take an easy path and had to wind its way from cover to cover.  
"Dodge." Red ordered, and the embers cut off, Charmander diving to the side just before Ekans could lunge for it. "7 o'clock metal claw." Charmander turned and slammed a steel enhanced paw into Ekan's head. "Retreat." Charmander fired an ember for good measure, before jogging away from Ekans.  
"Leer!"  
"Growl." The two pokemon glared at each other, daring the other to back down. They stayed there for a few moments before Ekans hissed suddenly. Charmander flinched.  
"Now!" Before Charmander could react, Ekans closed the space and coiled around, binding his arms and bringing the fire type to the ground. "Poison sting!"  
That wasn't good- "Ember its face." Charmander attacked Ekans, but the snake took it with a wince, before jabbing its fangs into Charmander's neck.  
"CHA!" Red didn't even need to see the purple tinting Charmander's cheeks to know that he'd gotten poisoned.  
"Don't let it escape! Keep it wrapped up tight!"  
"Ember and use your tail." Charmander lifted its tail and slammed it into the snake while blasting it in the face with ember. It held on for a moment, before instincts took over and it let go, scurrying away to avoid the abuse. "Don't stop."  
"Ekans evade!" It was a race against the clock.  
Hit  
Hit  
Miss  
Poison made Charmander aim wide.  
Miss  
Ekans dove for cover behind a rock, and an ember barely warded him off.  
Miss  
Hit  
"Kans!"  
Hit. Ekans writhed in pain for a moment, and Charmander fired another ember unbidden before the ekans stilled.  
"Ekans is unable to battle! The winner is Red Kiro." Red ran over and scooped up Charmander, who grinned up at him even through the poison.  
"Good job buddy." He said. "Get a good rest."  
"I don't believe it!" Ben said, returning his ekans, "I thought Ekans had that!"   
Red got up and shook Ben's offered hand, before heading back over to the bleachers. At some point Liam had taken his empty seat and was grinning at Red.  
"Not bad, kid."  
"I guess Charmander did pretty good. Not as good as Squirtle would've." Red rolled his eyes.  
"I'm heading to the pokemon center." He said, glancing at Liam, "I can, right?"  
"Only big tournaments care if you leave the grounds, and they have to have their own centers.” Liam said, “As long as you're here when your match starts you could head to Saffron for all we care. You just can't use any pokemon you didn't have when you registered." Red nodded, before looking at Blue, silently asking if he wanted to come. Blue shrugged and got up.  
"May as well." He said, "Save our spot?"  
Liam shook his head, "I've got to get up and do my job. Just stopped by to see the match." Liam stood up, "See you when your next match starts." Liam said, before walking away. Red adjusted his hat, and started heading towards the door, Blue right at his side.  
~~~~~~  
"Red Kiro vs Janice Eri on field 2." Red scarfed down the last couple bits of his hotdog and jogged down to the field. His opponent this time looked to be fifteen, and did not in fact introduce herself by saying she likes skirts.  
"Wow, you're kinda young. Don't think that I'll take it easy on you though." Red just nodded. He wouldn't want her to anyway.  
"Trainers, select your pokemon. Ready. Set. Go."  
"Ran!"  
"Pidgey!"  
That wasn't good. Faintly, Red could hear the announcer mention something about a bad matchup, but he had something else to focus on.  
"Gust!"  
"Dodge it." Nidoran easily avoided the gust. That was what half their training had been lately after all. How was he going to hit back though?  
"You can't run forever~" Janice said in a sing-songy voice, "Gust!"  
"Get past it and jump." Nidoran ran under pidgey before the gust could come out and leapt up. Pidgey flapped its wings and went higher, out of reach-  
"Foul. Out of bounds."  
"What?" Janice snapped.  
"For no badge matches you are not allowed to fly more than 5 feet above the opponent's standing height. Tell your pidgey to come down now."  
Red blinked, even as Janice ordered her pidgey down with a scowl, "Fine, you still can't reach me up here. Gust!"  
"Back up."  
"Follow it." Janice smirked.  
Nidoran led pidgey on a chase around the field, not taking any hits but certainly not getting any closer to winning himself. Red's eyes flicked over to the giant screen on the wall of the gym, where the remaining 14 minutes 13 seconds were displayed. How did they break ties here? How much health they had left? Or was it the judges score? Red hadn't even thought to check, and either way it wouldn't help him if he spent the whole time dodging.  
"Hide behind that rock."  
"Ran!"  
"Just fly over the rock Pidgey."  
"Back up." Red watched Pidgey fly over the 2 foot tall rock to continue its attack. That might...  
"Circle around."  
"Oh just give up you little twerp." Janice said, "We all know your nidoran can't do anything against Pidgey.  
"And Janice Eri on field 2 is taunting her opponent. She's been in control with her pidgey both this match and the previous. Will Red Kiro be able to turn this around?"  
Red tuned out the announcer and glanced at the clock. 9 minutes 54.  
"Behind the rock again."  
"Over it~" Red waited a few moments for pidgey to approach.  
"Nidoran, tag."  
"Ran?" Nidoran glanced back at him, before his eyes widened and the little poison type grinned.  
"Tag? You two can go play after I win this. Pidgey hit it!"  
"Now."  
"Ran!" Nidoran bounced up onto the rock and flung itself up towards pidgey  
"Poison sting."  
"Pidgey run!"  
"And a clean hit from Nidoran sends Pidgey sprawling back towards the ground will Red be able to capitalize or will Janice take back control?"  
"Poison sting." Red ordered. Even if it got back up after this-  
"JI!!!" A poisoned Pidgey couldn't fly away forever.  
"Pidgey get up! Hurry!"  
"Poison sting again."  
"Ran!" Nidoran got one last jab in before pidgey sent him flying with a gust and took off again. It was Red's turn to smile though. Nidoran's poison got it.  
"You little brat! Pidgey gust!"  
"Dodge."  
"And with that move the pace of this battle has turned around completely! Now that Pidgey is poisoned Janice is the one on the backfoot."  
"Red's nidoran is incredibly agile for this level. If it can keep this up, Janice will have to rethink her strategy."  
Nidoran darted around the field, dodging gusts. Pidgey flew near a rock one other time, and barely avoided a repeated attack. After that, Red was able to use the rocks to stay out of the path of gusts with almost no resistance.  
Pidgey started flying lower.  
"Now." Nidoran broke cover and darted forward, jumping up and slamming into pidgey with a peck before the bird could react. It didn't fall to the floor again, but if the pidgey was too weak to fly out of reach, Red could finally go on the offensive.  
"Now."  
"Back."  
"Now."  
"Now."  
"Back."  
"Poison sting."  
Another few minutes ticked by, and Nidoran was getting more and more hits in as the pidgey sank lower and lower. Gusts became rarer, weaker, and soon all pidgey was doing was running.  
Until finally, it fell.  
"Pidgey is unable to battle. The winner is Red Kiro!"  
"After a rough start Trainer Red Kiro turns the match around. What are your thoughts Brock?"  
"Janice didn't have a backup plan when someone poked a hole in her strategy. She should teach it a move like quick attack so that it can control space more effectively."  
"Grrr!" Janice returned her pidgey and stomped her foot. "You're so mean!" For... winning?  
"Ran!" Nidoran ran back over to Red and beamed.  
"Good job buddy." Red knelt down and gently pet the poison type, "How are you feeling?"  
"Nnn... Ran Nido-ran!" Nidoran nodded. Yea, he hadn't really taken many hits did he? It was more running around. Red returned his pokemon and headed back to the bleachers.  
"Note to self. Don't fly above rocks." Blue said with a smirk. "Not bad Red. I mean, I wouldn't have fallen for it, but you did pretty good."  
"Ember."  
Blue winced, "That was one time!"  
Liam laughed, "Yea, that was a tough matchup. I would've probably tried to kick a rock in a makeshift attack or something." Red filed that away, "You did good though kid. You've just got one more match to go. Then, you know, you can make me 20 bucks," Red smiled, and Blue laughed.  
"How's Nidoran?"  
"More tired than anything." Red said, "I'm still going to get him checked."  
"There's no harm in doing it." Liam said, "It's better to be safe than sorry." Red nodded, before looking at Blue.  
"Yea yea I'm coming. Gimme a sec." Blue took a drink of his soda and handed it to Red so he could stuff their trash back in the takeout bag, before he took his drink back and started walking towards the exit, leaving Red to jog a few steps to catch up.  
Two down, one to go. He could handle that.  
~~~~~~  
When Red got back from taking Nidoran to the pokemon center, he checked who he was fighting. In round 1, he wouldn't have known what they had anyway, and in round 2 Charmander was still recovering. When he saw who he was fighting Red immediately checked Charmander over again to make sure he was up for it. "Colton Hisashi vs Red Kiro on field 3."  
Colton was only a year older than him, and his exposed arms and legs were covered in little bites and scrapes. "I train in Viridian Forest." He said proudly, "Lemme show you what bug types can do!"  
"Trainers, select your pokemon. Ready. Set. Go."  
"Charmander."  
"Free!"  
Butterfree, the butterfly pokemon and a prime example of why bug types are really good when you first start training. "Be careful breathing Charmander."  
"Ah, you know what to expect." Colton frowned, "Oh well, confusion!"  
"Ember then evade." Charmander spat an ember out before flinching at an invisible blow and taking off to the side.  
"Free!" the butterfree flew up to dodge the ember, staying lower than the pidgey to avoid the invisible ceiling on their battle.  
"Pepper it."  
"Dodge!" Butterfree wasn't the most mobile of species. There were exceptions, but those were usually well trained. Add in Charmander's accuracy training, and, while they were smaller and meant to be fired quickly, embers were starting to hit and wrack up damage.  
"Confusion right in front of you!" The weak psychic attack worked well as a shield, and Charmander stalled. "Now use gust!"  
"Get cover and hold your breath." Charmander dove behind one of the rocks, and Red could faintly see the gust shimmering, little bits of powder coming off of butterfree's wings. After a moment, the gust ended, and Charmander took a few gulps of air.  
"Circle wide."  
"Go left." Charmander stayed behind cover even as the butterfree circled. Colton didn't approach. Had he seen Red's last fight? “Fire and hide."  
"Confusion to block it! Then use gust again."  
"Ember through it." Maybe they could use the ember against it like he had with Blue.  
The first ember was stopped by the confusion. The second-  
Blew up.  
As soon as the ember and gust connected, the entire space between the two exploded, sending both pokemon flying and making a crater in the middle of the field.  
"Oh my goodness and on field 3 we have a dust explosion! Both pokemon look to still be standing, but neither appreciated that one bit!" No kidding. Charmander staggered back to his feet, mostly protected by the now destroyed rock he'd been using as cover, while Butterfree was singed, climbing back to its feet because one its wings was damaged, still smoking and definitely not able to catch enough wind to fly.  
"Butterfree are you ok?!"  
"Charmander!" Charmander shook his head and stuck a claw in his ear. After a moment, he looked back at Red and gave a thumbs up. Butterfree meanwhile, was slowly flapping its wings. After a few seconds, it turned to its trainer and nodded.  
"Should, should we stop?" Red said nervously.  
"Nah, butterfree wings heal pretty well." Colton said, "If he says he's fine, I wanna believe him. Let's just agree not to do that again, K? No ember, no gust." Red looked to the judge, who eyed butterfree carefully, before slowly nodding his ok.  
"And both trainers agree to not use their STAB moves. Still, Colton Hisashi's butterfree definitely took the worst end of that trade. Can he recover?"  
"Right," Red said hesitantly, "Run up and metal claw."  
"String shot to slow it down and then confusion!"  
"Cut through it." Charmander slashed at the webs Butterfree flung at him, cutting them enough that they didn't slow him down, even if he was still covered in them. The confusion made him stagger, and Charmander rolled down in the crater and came up at a sprint.  
"Bug bite!"  
"Metal claw it anyway. Butterfree moved for the first time since it exploded, flapping its wings once to meet Charmander just as he made it to the edge of the crater. The two slammed into each other hard, tumbling down and rolling into the hole in a mix of claws and teeth. Confusions slammed into Charmander's back, but it wasn't until Butterfree flapped its wings and sparks flew that the judge stepped in.  
"This battle is over!"  
"Charmander stop."  
"Butterfree hold it!"  
Both trainers called at the same time, before turning to the judge. He cleared his throat and explained, "Due to the possible danger of this match, I can't allow it to continue. One stray flap of butterfree's wings could cause another explosion. As such, I declare it unable to battle, and Red Kiro the winner!"  
"Talk about an explosive battle for our badgeless trainers huh Brock?" Red didn't hear Brock's response. It was over? Yea, it made sense why, but ending a battle early like that was… unsatisfying...  
"Ah man." Colton said, even as he returned Butterfree. "We probably weren't gonna win anyway, but I still wanted to see it through, you know?" Colton groaned, “Oh well. Congrats Red. Good luck against those badge trainers.”   
Red smiled and turned to leave, before Colton snapped his fingers, "I know! We should have another match sometime to make up for it. You have a nidoran right?" Red nodded, "After Butterfree gets better why don't we have another match with it?"  
Red really wanted to. He really wanted to finish that fight, but Butterfree took quite the beating. "How long will it take?"  
"A few weeks probably." Colton said with a shrug, "Butterfree wings heal well, but it still takes a while.  
"I, I'm not gonna be here in a few weeks."  
"Oh. You're here for the badge huh?" Red nodded, "Even better. You go get your badges and come back. By then me and Butterfree will have a way to deal with explosions like that." He grinned, "We might even turn it on you next time. Deal?" Colton offered his hand. Red couldn't help but smile too.  
"Deal." He said as he took it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I don't have much to say this week, but if you like this story please let me know. Have a good one.  
> Next chapter is late Monday the 25th


	5. Tournament Arc II

Blue and Liam met him at the base of the bleachers. "Congrats kid."  
"Not bad Red." Red bowed his head, even as he smiled a bit. "I'll admit, literally blowing up the arena is a bit much, but it worked."  
"I didn't know that would happen."  
"So you weren't trying to do the same ember trick you did to Pidgey?"  
"Pidgey didn't blow up did she?"  
"Nah, I guess she didn't." Blue laughed.  
"Yea yea laugh it up. I'm the one who's gonna have to go fix that and boot up the barriers early." Liam grumbled, "You're lucky I like you kid."  
"Sorry."  
"Ah don't worry about it." Liam said, "Now we know to watch out for fire types and butterfree." He stretched, "I really do have to go fix that though. You two go get Charmander patched up. There's a half hour or so before you four get your prize and we start the next round."  
Red nodded while Blue spoke, "Sure thing. Smell ya later." Red and Blue headed to the exit and started walking down to the pokemon center.  
"I guess it makes sense that you moved on." Blue said, "If you're gonna be my rival you've got to be at least competent don't you?" Red rolled his eyes, "Hey, you're the one who's a badge down Red." Blue smirked, "You can roll your eyes at me when you've actually got a badge to your name." The two of them made it to the pokemon center before Red could think of a comeback. Dangit, Blue was gonna hold that over his head until he beat Brock wasn't he?  
"How did your match go?" Nurse Joy smiled at Red when they made it to the front of the line.  
"He blew up some kid's butterfree." Blue said simply.  
"Oh that was you?" Nurse Joy asked. Red hesitantly nodded, "Oh don't worry, it'll be just fine after it rests for a while." She smiled, before turning back to the screen that told her Charmander's status, "Charmander's ears are going to be sensitive for a few hours, but he's still ok to battle." Nurse Joy said as she handed him the fire type's pokeball. "I wish you the best of luck." Red nodded and gave her a small smile, before him and Blue turned and started walking back to the gym.  
After a few steps, Blue let out a breath, "I know that if what happened to that butterfree was serious Brock and the judge would've cancelled the fight, but man, that looked pretty bad from the stands."  
It looked worse from across the field probably. "Colton said it'd be ok."  
"It is his pokemon isn't it? He'd probably know better than us. What were you talking about after the match anyway?"  
"Rematch."  
Blue laughed, "He didn't have enough after one explosion? What, does he have a second butterfree waiting for its turn?"  
"Next time I'm in Pewter."  
"He really wants roasted bug then, doesn't he? You're not gonna be here again anytime soon after all are you?" Red shook his head. The conversation lulled, and the two made it back to the gym. Liam had apparently fixed the field while they were gone, and was currently talking with Brock and Amara over at the judges table. When he saw Red, he nodded, before turning back to the other two. Red and Blue sat down, and after a few minutes, Amara's voice came on over the speaker.  
"Will our four winners please come forward?" The other two winners were two girls and another boy. When all four of them were lined up, Brock walked forward.  
"Congratulations to the four of you." He said, "You've each done well to make it this far. You've trained your pokemon well for your level. When you are called, step forward and receive your prize." There was a polite applause for the four of them, before Amara spoke up.  
"Ikue Ohtani" One of the girls stepped forward, who was wearing a red skirt and blouse and had shoulder length black hair. On her shoulder, she had a pikachu that was absolutely beaming. Brock handed her the prize (For them it was only a 20 dollar pokemart card) and congratulated her. There was a bit of cheering for her, before the next name was called.  
"Dion Sorachi." A kid who was dressed kinda like Colton walked forward, and the same process repeated.  
"Red Kiro." Red stepped forward. He couldn't help that his smile widened when Brock congratulated him. Blue was being obnoxiously loud, but the cheers for him were still more quiet than for the other two. He hadn't grown up here, he supposed.  
"Jullie Alfwin" The last girl got noticeably more cheers than everyone else, mostly from a group that was bunched up on one end of the bleachers. After it subsided, Brock spoke up again.  
"The four of you will be fighting against our one badge participants. They are expected to have two pokemon by that point, so two of you will be at a disadvantage. Still, I expect you to do the best you can, and learn what you can from them as well. Good luck to you four and to everyone else participating." The cheers returned, a lot of them from kids who looked to be on the younger side. The one badge trainers? "Now that the badgeless round has concluded, it is time for the one badge round to begin!"  
~~~~~~  
"Red Kiro Vs. Ander Futoshi on field 4." Red nodded, getting up from his spot on the bleachers and heading to the field. He was lucky he'd gotten seeded late. It gave his pokemon a chance to rest a little. Both of the girls from the badgeless group had already fought, and only the girl with the pikachu had moved on. The other guy was fighting right now too, but Red could ask Blue how that went later.  
Ander was older than most of the people in this round, late teens maybe? He wore a karate gi, and he was bouncing slightly as he waited for Red to make it down to him.  
"Just cause you're a badgeless kid don't think I'll take it easy on you ok boy? You made it this far, let's see what you can do." Red nodded.  
"This round will be a two on two battle between Red Kiro in the Red corner and Ander Futoshi in the Blue corner with substitutions allowed. Trainers, select your first pokemon. Ready, set, go."  
"Geodude!"  
"Nidoran."  
"Rock throw!"  
"Tag." Nidoran nodded, and before the geodude even threw the first rock, had taken off to close the gap. Rock throw wasn't nearly as fast as rock tomb, or as good at slowing Nidoran's approach. "Poison sting."  
"Poison's not gonna do anything to geodude! Take down when he gets close."  
"Careful." Nidoran poked forward, but didn't commit to an attack. Geodude moved closer, but couldn't reach Nidoran from that distance. In fact, all he did was get close enough for Nidoran to jab him, for all the good it did. That repeated a couple more times. Geodude wasn't fast enough to hit Nidoran, but Nidoran couldn't do anything back to it in return.  
"Metal claw." A flash of light, and Charmander was rushing forward instead.  
"No way he can dodge as well as that nidoran hit him with a rock throw!"  
"Left. Right. Right. Under." Red guided Charmander through the onslaught, and they had almost made it to the geodude when its trainer smirked.  
"Magnitude!" Geodude dropped down, slamming into the ground with enough force to shake it.  
"Cha!" Charmander tried to stay on his feet, but halfway through the attack slipped, squirming on the ground for the last second of the attack.  
"Sorry kid. Magnitude again!"  
"Charmander quick, get up." Charmander clambered to his feet just in time to brace for the next attack. Geodude didn't do it quite right though, and the shaking barely fazed them, thank mew. "Metal claw before he can try again."  
"Defense curl!" Geodude lifted his arms to block the attack, chips flying off as it grunted in pain.  
"Don't give them room. Mix in embers." Charmander growled, a burst of flame appearing and slamming into geodude's face long enough for the next metal claw to take it by surprise, knocking the rock type off balance and letting Charmander get another strike in. Charmander closed the gap, slamming a claw into the rock the geodude tried to bring up to stop him.  
"Geodude take the hit and magnitude!"  
"Jump on him."  
"What?" Geodude dropped right as Charmander jumped, planting both feet on top of the rock type and using the relative safety to get another ember off.  
"Return!" Geodude disappeared, and Charmander landed awkwardly, scrambling to his feet as Ander sent out his other pokemon.  
"Machop low kick!"  
"Retreat." Charmander took a step back, barely avoiding the low kick, before taking the karate chop that followed and getting sent back. "Ember."  
"Stay close!" Machop did his best to stay in range, Charmander's only saving grace being that it seemed afraid to take an ember. If it got over that, Charmander would be in trouble, and Nidoran couldn't hurt the geodude enough to win that battle...  
"Peck."  
"Block it!" Nidoran appeared a little in the air, above machop. He fell down, horn glowing slightly as he slammed into machop from a higher angle than the fighting type was prepared for.  
"Chop!"  
"Poison sting."  
"Don't let it hit you!" Machop managed to deflect the poison sting, and Nidoran jumped back to avoid any kind of counterattack.  
"Careful of that horn Machop."  
"Hit from above." Nidoran nodded, before sprinting to the side and circling the machop.  
"Karate chop when it gets close. My mark."  
"Peck."  
"Mark." Nidoran didn't follow through. The moment Machop moved to attack, Nidoran turned and slid past.  
"Peck."  
"Mark."  
"Peck."  
"Mark."  
"Peck."  
"Mar-"  
"Over." Machop was a little slow that time, and Nidoran jumped over it, dodging the karate chop and slamming his horn into the fighting type's back.  
"Poison sting." The horn glowed purple and-  
"Seismic toss!"  
"Your barbs." Nidoran tried to back away, but machop was too fast and grabbed on. In retaliation, Nidoran flared his barbs.  
"CHOP!"  
"RAN!"   
Both pokemon cried out as they fell to the ground, Nidoran from the fall itself, and Machop from the purple already tinting his cheeks.  
"Stay away."  
"Machop hurry!" Both pokemon were tired, but Nidoran was faster. It wasn't the most honorable way to take out machop, but after a minute or so on the offensive, Machop slumped over.  
"Machop is unable to battle. Blue trainer, send out your next pokemon."  
"Geodude you can do this!"  
"Nidoran, come rest. Charmander, metal claw."  
"Rock throw!"  
"Left, right, left, ember" Charmander fired an ember at the rock and it slowed enough for him to jump over it. "Metal claw."  
"Defense curl!"  
"Ember." The flames licked past geodude's raised arms, and metal claw slammed into them over and over. Charmander kept hammering away at Geodude relentlessly, but despite all the effort he was putting in, the rock type refused to go down. Charmander attacked again and again until-  
"Magnitude finish it!" He got too tired to get out of the way.  
"Charmander is unable to battle. Red trainer, send out your next pokemon." Red took a breath and looked across the arena. Geodude pulled himself out of the ground, and looked decidedly unhappy. He also looked scorched, and the first time he moved his arms he winced. Burned.  
"Nidoran."  
"Ran!"  
"Same as before. Poison stings. Watch out for magnitude."  
"Ran."  
"Keep it away!" Geodude started throwing rocks, and Nidoran was able to stay out of danger fairly easily, weaving through the rocks without Red even needing to give much input. Every time geodude threw a rock, its eyes narrowed a bit, the only sign he was still showing of the burn. Nidoran jabbed his arm with a poison sting, and backed away before a take down could punish him.  
"Magnitude!"  
"Jump away." Nidoran leaped, going over geodude to keep his momentum and landing just at the edge of the magnitude's range, wincing, but mostly fine. "Back to poison stings."  
"Grr, Rock throw!" There really wasn't much else they could do. Geodude was too slow to hit Nidoran, and even if Nidoran's attacks weren't doing much, they were bothering the burn he had and still slowly draining the rock type of its energy. It was slow, but after a while, it finally got too tired to continue and sank to the floor.  
"Geodude is unable to battle. The winner is Red Kiro!"  
"Gah! You're pokemon are so fast boy! I couldn't hit the things." Ander let out a noise of frustration, before looking at him, "Congrats boy. You trained them well." Red nodded.  
"You too."  
"Don't go losing to whoever you fight next you hear? If I'm gonna lose to a boy with no badges he's got to at least beat someone else too, got it?"  
~~~~~~  
"Grace Fujiwara Vs. Red Kiro on field one." Red nodded. He'd watched her match earlier. Paras and a jigglypuff. She was defensive. Paras had taken more of a beating, so she'd probably start with Jigglypuff.  
"Good luck." Red barely heard the girl, and met her own shy smile with his own.  
"This battle will be between Grace Fujiwara in the red corner and Red Kiro in the blue corner." Oh that wouldn't be confusing would it? "Trainers, select your first pokemon. Ready, set, go."  
"Nidoran."  
"Paras!"  
Red was wrong then. Fine, Nidoran would still do well. "Poison sting."  
"Stun spore."  
"Stay back." Nidoran stopped just out of the cloud of yellow powder, and they stood awkwardly, waiting for it to clear. Grace didn't wait that long.  
"Absorb!"  
"Circle it and peck."  
"Follow it." Little green balls of energy flew out of the fading cloud of spores, Barely trailing Nidoran and keeping him from getting closer.  
"Behind the rock." Nidoran pulled back, sliding behind a rock that took the brunt of the absorb.  
"Go after it. Get fury swipes ready." Paras walked out of the remains of the spore cloud towards the rock.  
Red adjusted his hat. Nidoran couldn't do anything without risking getting paralyzed. Nidoran would be all but useless if that happened. "Ember."  
"Disable!" Red hadn't even finished throwing the pokeball when Grace made her order. Charmander appeared and took a breath to roast the bug, but nothing happened. The bug was gone, and jigglypuff was in its place, staring straight at Charmander.  
"Der? Char char?!"  
"Puff." It winked at them!  
"Pound!"  
"Metal claw." The two pokemon ran towards each other, but just before Charmander could hit the pink pokemon it jumped and floated over him, before turning around and kicking him in the back of the head. Charmander stumbled, but righted himself and turned to glare at the puffball.  
"Char!" Charmander exhaled, but nothing happened.  
"You can't use ember." Red said, "You have to get in close." Disable only lasted a few minutes, but that was a long time with only two pokemon.  
"Metal claw."  
"Charm!" Jigglypuff smiled and it looked like it shrank a little. Red couldn't help but smile at the look on its face, before he shook his head. Charmander had slowed down a bit too.  
"Focus charmander."  
"Pound." Jigglypuff puffed back out, flinging itself forward to slam its fist into Charmander's face. Charmander clawed at its back and earned a cry of pain in response, but he couldn't get nearly as good a hit as he wanted.  
"Now fury swipes!" The fairy type was gone, and paras was back, slashing at Charmander who started staggering back to try and avoid the pressure.  
"Hit it with your tail."  
"Paras get back!" Paras wasn't nearly fast enough though, and cried out when the fire that still burned on Charmander's tail slammed into its side.  
"You can't use ember, but you still have your tail."  
"Cha!" Charmander grinned, grabbing his tail with one claw and rushing the bug type.  
"Poison powder!"  
"Get back." Charmander wasn't quite fast enough to get out of the way, and as was rapidly becoming a habit, purple started tinting his cheeks.  
"Get it quick." This wasn't good. Nidoran couldn't beat both, especially if paras hit it with any kind of spore attack. Charmander had to take down this paras.  
"Fury swipes to meet it." The first slash smacked Charmander's tail away, and the second raked his chest, sending the fire type flying back. That did so mu-  
She'd used growth. When she used stun spore earlier her paras had used growth!  
"Be careful Charmander." Charmander nodded, before wincing from the poison and charging forward. "Left." Charmander dove to the side to get behind paras instead of risking those claws, before shoving his tail forward and under the bug type.  
"PARAS!"  
"Absorb!" Charmander resisted the attack, but after that growth it still hurt. Charmander took a step back, and paras steadied. It still looked beat up just from the few attacks Charmander had hit, but it was still standing. "Keep it up."  
"Don't let those hit you. Metal claw them away."  
"Char!" Charmander slashed forward, cutting through the energy balls as he closed the gap.  
"Stun spore!"  
"Dodge it!" Charmander was more prepared than last time thank goodness, and dove to the side, though not without slamming his tail into paras.  
"RAS!" Who wasn't prepared in the slightest, and collapsed.  
"Paras is unable to battle! Red trainer send out your next pokemon."  
"Jigglypuff!" The fairy type appeared, floating gently down a few feet before winking at Charmander. The fireless fire type growled, before it got cut off by a wave of poison damage.  
"Stall him out!"  
"Get in close and metal claw." Jigglypuff took a breath of air and bounced, floating over to a rock and leaving Charmander to scramble to try and get closer. When he did, the fairy type just bounced again, floating away.  
"Der Char Char leon!"  
"Puff puff glee!" Charmander wasn't fast enough to catch it. By the time he got close to a rock and started climbing, jigglypuff would just float away. Charmander was getting angry, and Red could swear he saw smoke coming out of his-  
"Ember!"  
"Dodge it! Jigglypuff wasn't quite as adept at turning as it was running, and the ember hit it. Unfortunately, that ember took the last of Charmander's strength with it, and the fire type collapsed.  
"Charmander is unable to battle! Blue trainer, send out your next pokemon."  
Ok, Jigglypuff was evasive, and flew like a flying type, but it was fairly slow. Nidoran could use the rocks more effectively than it could and poison sting it down. If that got disabled, he still had peck. Plus, Nidoran was more fresh than jigglypuff. He was still ahead.  
"Nidoran poison sting."  
"Disable it!" Red released Nidoran on a rock nearby, and he launched up at jigglypuff instantly. The fairy type looked his way and scrunched up its face, but disable didn't connect in time to stop nidoran.  
"PUFF!"  
The pink pokemon started floating away. "Don't give it space."  
"Sing now!"  
"Get away. Don't listen."  
"Ran?!" Nidoran looked at him like he ordered it to turn into a gyarados. Red covered his ears to block out the jigglypuff's song, and he could see Grace doing the same. Nidoran didn't have the hands to do that, and the very idea of not listening to something seemed crazy to the poison type. His eyes started fluttering, and his stance slackened. He shook his head a couple of times, trying to clear it, but it wasn't long before Nidoran collapsed, snoring lightly.  
"Good job jigglypuff! Now get up close and use echoed voice!"  
"Nidoran, wake up. Nidoran!" Red raised his voice, trying to startle his pokemon awake, but it was no use. Jigglypuff walked right next to him and took a breath.  
"JIGGLYPUFF!!!" Before shouting right into Nidoran's ear. A jigglypuff screaming right in his sensitive ears, and type matchup didn't matter. That attack was super effective.  
And Nidoran absolutely fainted.  
"Nidoran is unable to battle! The winner is Grace Fujiwara!"  
"I did it. I did it!" Grace jumped, grinning widely, "You did great jigglypuff thank you so much!" She said, before returning her pokemon. Red did the same.  
"You did great Nidoran." That… didn’t go well at all. Grace had been in control that whole time. Yea she already had her badge, and for all he knew she was ready to get a second, but it still stung to get beaten that badly. He should’ve switched Charmander sooner so he could try and deal with the jigglypuff. Or warned him that jigglypuff were floaty. Or any number of things he still hadn’t spotted. Red took a breath and adjusted his hat, before turning and heading over to the front where one of the gym trainers was sitting at a computer.  
“Excuse me?”  
“Yes?” They said.  
“Can, can I get the battle records for my fights today?”  
“Sure. What’s your name?”  
“Red Kiro.” The gym trainer clicked at the keyboard for a minute before responding.  
“And done. I just sent them to you. We clear our videos a week after they’re made though, so make sure you save any you want to keep.”  
“Thank you.” Red said, bowing his head. He started heading back towards the bleachers to find Blue, but he stopped when he heard a voice.  
"Did you see that Ms. Bella! It worked!" Red glanced over to see Grace standing next to an red haired older girl, 17 maybe?  
"You did great Grace! That went about as well as it could."  
"But paras still fainted."  
"Well yea, but he did his job didn't he? No battle's ever gonna go perfect."  
"Not bad, kid." Red turned to see Liam standing next to him, grinning, "You did pretty good considering she's got a badge already." He looked over to Grace and 'Ms. Bella' "That was smart abusing Nidoran's ears like that. Most trainers your age wouldn't have even thought of that."  
"Thanks! Ms. Bella helped!"  
"Bella?" Liam looked at her, and his eyes widened, "It's been awhile since you took the kids for a tournament.”  
“Yea.” She said, “There haven’t been enough for me to need to come with them so...”  
"It's normally that other girl who brings everyone down. What was her name?"  
"Alex? She's busy this week, so I'm filling in."  
"And knocking my student out of the tournament."  
"Hey, Grace here needed someone to show her that types aren't the only thing that matter. I didn't tell her what to do exactly. Just gave her the pieces. Sorry about that.”  
“Its ok Ms. Bella.” She groaned.  
“Just Bella’s fine. I’m just glad I talked Grace down as far as I did honestly.” Grace bowed her head and murmured an apology that Bella waved off.  
"Are you still a 5 badge trainer?" Liam asked.  
"Brock tested me as a 6 this time." She said with a grin, "I'm aiming to get to the sevens."  
"Ooh. Bad luck then." Liam said, "Cause, you see, I kinda need to get payback for Red here. And I promised to show him what a nidoran can do so... Hope you understand."  
"Yea, sorry to say but I kinda need that prize money. I'm going to Cerulean next week, you know?"  
Grace let out a small laugh, and Red glanced back at her. "Do you two even know if you'll be fighting?" Both of the older people stilled.  
"Nope."  
"I'm gonna go ask Amara." Red couldn't help but laugh with Grace.  
~~~~~~  
"Man, that was rough." Blue met up with Red a little bit later, and the two of them started heading to the pokemon center. "That girl took a four times weakness and stopped it. Just like that." He snapped his fingers. "Why'd that echoed voice take out Nidoran though? Yea he was asleep, but echoed voice isn't that strong is it?"  
"Nidoran have sensitive ears." Blue winced.  
"Yea, that'll do it. That's why that sing worked so well too, isn't it?" Red nodded. "Geez, she made her entire strategy around you. I know she's got one more badge but still." The two of them made it to the pokemon center. Neither said anything as they waited in line. When they made it to the front, Nurse Joy must have seen the look on their faces.  
"Eliminated?" Red nodded, "I'm sorry." She took his pokeballs and put them in the healing machine, "You did really well though."  
"That chick he fought was on a whole different level though."  
"That's what happens in the progression tournaments." Nurse Joy sighed, "It's great that people get to see how they compare, but every time they happen I see trainers come in here after a mismatch like that." She handed Red back his pokeballs, "Nidoran's ears are going to hurt for a while. Don't send him out anywhere too noisy for a day or so, ok?" Red nodded, "I hope you have a great day." She gave him a sympathetic smile, and the two boys walked out.  
"You still wanna check out the rest of the tournament?"  
Red nodded. "I can still learn."  
"Yea, I get what you mean. There's a couple people with pidgey's I'm definitely gonna steal some ideas from." He shrugged, "I kinda wish there were other people with starters though, you know? I'd love to see what other people are doing with them."  
"Ask Gramps?"  
"Yea! He probably knows some who'd be willing to teach us. Or show us some old battle videos at least." That would be nice. Having Liam show him how to fight with Nidoran was really helpful. Even if they only got videos, it would probably help with Charmander a lot too. "I'll ask him about it later."  
"Ask for me?"  
"Fine, I guess I can mention charmanders too." Red rolled his eyes, and the two of them turned the last corner to the gym.  
"You go ahead." Red lifted a pokeball, and Blue nodded.  
"Yea sure, I'll save you a spot." Red nodded, and Blue headed inside.  
"Come on out."  
"Ran..."  
"Char..." Both pokemon slumped forward, Nidoran's ears twitching wildly.  
"Hey guys." Red really wasn't someone who usually had to lower his voice, but he did it anyway. Both pokemon looked at him, before bowing their heads. "Yea, we lost." Red admitted, "Sorry I let you two down." Both of them looked up at him. "Yea, I kinda messed that up. I should've probably used Nidoran for the paras and Charmander for the jigglypuff." Even if Nidoran got paralyzed, paras were really slow. It would've been tough, but he probably could have won that. By then, disable probably would've worn off enough to handle jigglypuff flying around like that. "Next time, we're gonna do even better, ok? They're not gonna have a chance."  
"Cha!" Charmander cried, before Nidoran flinched.  
"Nidoran took a loud hit in that fight Charmander." Red said, "You've gotta keep your voice down, ok?"  
"Cha." Charmander whispered, and Red couldn't help but smile.  
"I'm glad you two are doing all right. Besides the ear thing." Nidoran nodded, "I'm gonna go back inside and watch the rest of the fights, ok? Do either of you want something before you go back in your pokeballs?"  
"Za."  
"Do." Both shook their heads.  
"Got it. I'll see you two later, ok?" Both nodded, and Red returned them to their pokeballs before getting up and heading inside. Blue was sitting about as in the middle as possible, and Red took the saved spot next to his friend.  
The rest of the day's fights were fun to watch. Grace made it through to the next badge set, and actually took out two people before someone else took her down. (Seeing how well she did definitely did make Red feel a little better about his own match.) He didn't recognize anyone else who participated, but judging from the group surrounding Bella, the people they sent did pretty well all for themselves. When Liam had a moment's reprieve, he checked in on the two of them a couple of times, and for one match with a pidgeotto he sat there and explained what they were doing and why things went the way they did, much to Blue's delight.  
Hours later, they cleared their way through to the people with 4 badges, and the gym closed for the night. Red fell asleep almost instantly, his mind playing images of his battles, mixed in with little ways he thought he could improve.   
~~~~~~  
"Liam Toshikazu vs Isabelle Kuroki on field 2." Red grinned. Liam had told them that he'd actually gotten paired up against Bella. He couldn't wait to see Liam fight.  
For the second day, they'd cut it down to only two fields since the fights were at a higher level. They were also limited to just 3 vs 3 for time, even if they were all expected to have more than that. Red knew he'd use Nidorino for this match, but that was it.  
"This round will be a three on three battle between Liam Toshikazu in the Red corner and Isabelle Kuroki in the Blue corner with substitutions allowed. Trainers, select your first pokemon. Ready, set, go."  
"Victreebell let's go!"  
"Sandslash cut to it!" Neither trainer even said a word before Liam's sandslash blitzed forward, moving so fast that dust trailed behind it. Victreebel's leaf glowed green, and suddenly darted up, only to be blocked by a green tinted claw. A second followed, which seemed to glow even brighter, and slammed into victreebel's side. No rest. No reprieve. The fury cutters kept going for a moment, before victreebel's leaves lunged forward, binding the ground type. Sandslash jerked forward, curling into a ball and twisting, taking victreebel's vines with it until the grass type was forced to let go. When that happened, the ground type launched forward to slam into it, only for it to lower its mouth and catch sandslash whole. Victreebel stood there, visibly being attacked from the inside by sandslash, before it suddenly opened, and sandslash flew out, covered in poison and probably injured, but still conscious enough to turn around and summon a rock slide that slammed into the grass type.  
All that took maybe twenty seconds.  
"Razor leaf."  
"Sand tomb." The leaves were deflected, but sandslash stilled as a sweet scent came from seemingly nowhere, stalling him just long enough for victreebel to move through the sand tomb with surprising speed and slam a vine whip into his side. Sandslash took it and rolled, building up speed before jumping up and slamming back down. The earth cracked, and suddenly opened up beneath victreebel and sent the grass type flying.  
Bella started talking, but Red couldn't hear anything she said until she shouted her order, "Synthesis!"  
"Sand."  
Victreebel glowed green, but synthesis had barely started when sandslash kicked up such a ridiculous amount of sand that neither pokemon was visible. Neither trainer seemed worried, even as the sound of battle inside grew louder and louder. Then, with one last thud, a pokemon went flying far enough that the auto return functions triggered.  
"Blue trainer, send out your next pokemon."  
Red could see the two of them talking, bantering a little as the sand fluttered back to the ground (can't have been an actual sandstorm. Those last longer.) Just before the judge looked like he was about to repeat his order, Bella threw her pokeball.  
"ABLE!" The clefable immediately shot a moonblast at where sandslash's silhouette was just starting to peak out. Sandslash dodged, and the battle continued. It wasn't the up close brawl it had been with victreebell. Ranged attacks weren't mixed in, they were clefable's norm, forcing sandslash to jerk around and fight for every inch closer he got and to keep from losing the last foot gained. A moonblast went wide, and sandslash rushed in.  
Mistake. A barrier appeared to block the attack, and clefable blew a kiss. It hit sandslash and the ground type slacked, staring with heart shaped eyes at clefable. Instead of letting it take a beating, Liam returned sandslash and grabbed another pokeball. Then he turned to the stands, spotted Red, and winked.  
"Nidorino!"  
Nidorino was already halfway across the field. The purple pokemon almost a blur as it darted forward and slammed a kick into clefable's side, sending it flying before it could even get out a note. It recovered quickly, and started firing moonblasts that Nidorino deflected with minimal effort, its horn glowing purple. It still slowed, and it slowed enough for clefable to open its mouth.  
"Let's make some noise!" Liam yelled. Nidorino took a step, and suddenly he wasn't walking anymore. His entire body vanished into a blur as he barreled forward, half in the ground to tear it up and block out the sing attack. Clefable's eyes widened, and a protect stopped Nidorino just in time, a grinding noise echoing through the gym before Nidorino suddenly stopped and kicked back, flinging itself a distance away and landing perfectly.  
Red grinned. They were so fast. Their pokemon did half the work on their own because there just wasn't time for a trainer at that point. They didn't need to tell their pokemon to use an attack, they just did it.  
League battles were even faster, but Red hadn't seen any this close. Seats at the Indigo League didn't put him so close he could hear Blue complaining about sand in his eyes.  
Clefable wagged its fingers, and suddenly electricity shot out of them at Nidorino. Nidorino's ears twitched, and instead of dodging he dug his feet in and took it, watching closely as Clefable did it again. A swarm of glowing green lights appeared, and with a flick of its finger clefable sent them flying forward. Nidorino used drill run and aimed upwards so that he’d stay mostly in place but still deflect the attack order away. Another wag, and a ball of light appeared, before flying up and baking the field in sunlight. Clefable's fingers wagged, and a wave of sludge appeared, launching in Nidorino's general direction.  
Nidorino took it and attacked, reaching the fairy type just as clefable's fingers started to wag but before the move could be chosen, forcing it to take a step back to avoid a poison sting. Clefable charged a moonbast using it more like a club to smack Nidorino away before trying to sing again. Nidorino retreated, drill run blocking the sound before it turned around to try and slam into clefable. A moonblast stopped him in his tracks, and then a red light made him retreat.  
"Graveller!" The earth shook from an earthquake as the rock type appeared. Clefable bounced and it hadn't even landed before a rock tomb appeared and slammed into it, trapping the fairy between the terrain and the attack. A rockslide appeared and buried it.  
"Clefable is unable to battle! Blue trainer, send out your next pokemon."  
That, that was the only faint so far wasn't it?  
"Go!" A green blur appeared, and promptly vanished. Graveler looked around, eyes narrowed, before the green blur slowed to a stop right behind it. It held a hand out, and a solar beam appeared, slamming into the back of Graveler and sending it toppling forward and forcing it to transition into an awkward rollout.  
"Bellosom~" The new pokemon sang.  
"Wait, solar beam? She got so lucky with that sunny day!" Blue said. "Her Victreebel has synthesis too! What the heck is this?"  
Graveler couldn't keep up, not even close. It seemed to be doing its best to last, dodging and blocking what it could even as solar beams slammed into it from odd angles and petal blizzards chipped away at anything in their way. Honestly, considering the type disadvantage, surviving as long as he did was impressive.  
"Graveler is unable to battle! Red trainer send out your next pokemon!"  
Liam bantered for as long as he was allowed- They were stalling out the weather!- before sending Nidorino back out. Both pokemon were blurs, moving as fast as they could, but bellosom was the fastest pokemon on the field now. It controlled the pace, weaving in in a petal storm and weaving back out with solar beams. It didn't look like it had anything better to deal with Nidorino, but that wouldn't matter if Liam didn't-  
"Toxic!" Bellosom stopped in its tracks to back up, but Nidorino's aim was perfect, a blob of purple goo flying from its horn and slamming into the pure grass type. It gagged and coughed, trying to wipe the toxins off, but it was too late. "Dig!" And then Nidorino vanished and sandslash shook its head, before diving into the ground.  
"Petal dance at the opening! Flush it out!" Bellosom stood right at the opening, and as it started to dance, more and more petals began appearing, flying wider and wider and even flooding the hole.  
Ten seconds.  
Twenty Seconds.  
Thirty Seconds.  
A full minute passed before the bellossom dipped sideways, losing its balance from a mix of spinning and the steadily increasing toxic damage. The judge looked to Liam.  
"Sandslash is fine. See?" The ground beneath bellossom opened up, and the grass type fell in just long enough to get sent flying back out by sandslash. Sandslash looked a little bruised, but almost impossibly fine considering how the battlefield looked like fall had come early. Bella looked stunned.  
"Bellossom is unable to battle! Blue trainer, send out your next pokemon." Bella shook her head at the order, before grabbing victreebel's pokeball and sending it out.  
"Synthesis!"  
"Peck!" Sandslash vanished and Nidorino slammed down on the leaf used to defend victreebel, before the grass type lunged forward with surprising speed. Nidoran was bound up, and cried out as the victreebel squeezed.  
Liam did nothing, just glanced up at the fading sun.  
Another squeeze.  
Nothing.  
One more squeeze.  
The fake sun was almost gone.  
Sque-   
"Now!" Nidorino's back feet shot out, pounding into the joint of victreebel's left leaf once, twice, thrice four. The leaf slackened, and Nidorino twisted, pulling the much bigger pokemon onto its back and then over to the other side, slamming it into the ground and forcing its other leaf to let go. Nidorino's horn glowed, and it slammed a peck down on top of the grass type. Then it did it again. And again. And again. Victreebel tried to get back up, but a hard kick knocked it back every time. Nidorino growled savagely and slammed one more peck into the grass type before finally.  
"Victreebel is unable to battle! The winner is Liam Toshikazu!" Liam visibly relaxed, before looking back at the stands and giving Red a thumbs up.  
"Come on." Blue said, and the two of them got up and out of the bleachers. Behind them, Red could hear at least a part of Bella's group doing the same, and he picked up the pace just a little. Red saw Liam and Bella talking a little to the side of the battlefield. Liam took a pokeball and tossed it to reveal a golem. The golem slammed its feet down and made the field collapse in on the winding paths sandshrew dug to avoid the petal dance. Then it started bulldozing to remake the field properly.   
"That was awesome!" Blue said, "I mean that battle was so cool! You got so lucky with that sunny day but it didn't even matter!" Both of them smiled.  
"That wasn't luck was it?" Liam asked.  
"Nope." Bella popped her P.   
"Huh?"  
"Clefable can wag her fingers without using metronome you know." Bella smiled, "She hasn't ruined it by pulling a self destruct yet."  
"Why not just use sunny day though? Aren’t you wasting time?"  
"Because it looks like an accident." She said, "When my pokemon suddenly starts making use of weather I made 2 minutes ago it can catch people off guard if they forget about it."  
"Them you send in a solar beaming pokemon with chlorophyll and bam: my tank is out of the match without doing any tanking." Liam grumbled, "Making us look bad taking down a Pewter graveler like that." Liam cleared his throat, "So Blue said he had fun. What about you kid?" Red nodded.  
"Nidorino's so fast."  
"Not as fast as you'd think." Liam said, "Yours'll probably be faster if you train him up. His main thing is being so aggressive that you have to go on the defense. Sandslash is the one who tries to take ‘em out before they can do anything back." Liam glanced over at the small crowd that was waiting, then at Bella, "Yours are getting restless. You should probably go teach them how to accept defeat."  
"Like you're teaching yours how to be a good winner?"  
"I never said I was good at my job did I?" Bella laughed.  
"Fine fine. When you get mobbed by them asking questions you can totally blame me for it though." She said, before walking over to the half of her group that had walked down there, "All right, so what did you guys learn from my match?"  
"Now, I need to head to the center. If I go quick Brock might make Amara set up for me. You two coming?"  
~~~~~~  
The rest of the tournament flew by. Liam won against one more person, but his sandslash broke its claws to get the win and he forfeited the next round because of it. Blue stayed for the whole thing, and by the end his pokemon were healed enough that he set off towards Mount Moon. Red meanwhile...  
"Cha!"  
"Back out." Charmander fired an ember at the target rock, before diving to the side just in time to keep from getting pinned in by the geodude floating on top of said rock. Charmander popped out of cover and fired another ember, before running forward to get closer. "Block." Metal claw came out and took the brunt of the rock tomb, even if Charmander slid back a bit before firing another ember. He rushed closer. "Left." And dove to the left to dodge instead of the narrow trap on the right. He got closer and slammed a metal claw into the target rock, but couldn't get out in time to stop from being boxed in. Red checked his timer. "3 minute 4!"  
"Cha!" Charmander's tail flared a bit and he clambered his way out of the trap and over to Red. "New best." He smiled at his pokemon, "Great job bud."  
~~~~~~  
"Now." Nidoran dove under a rock and immediately turned to run around the next one. "Over." Nidoran jumped, barely scaling the rock with the help of a firm kick. The next one slammed into him, but he was ready and used it to spring a little closer. "Double kick." Close enough to skid to a stop and spin around slamming two kicks straight into the X carved in their target rock. The whole thing cracked, and Nidoran jumped forward fast enough to dodge one last rock launched by the geodude floating on top of their target.   
"Ran!"  
"You did it Nidoran!" Red grinned at his pokemon. Nidoran cried out again, before darting over to him. "10 in a row." Red adjusted his hat. "I think we're ready for a shot at Brock." Nidoran shifted nervously, "You'll do great buddy." He said, kneeling down to its level, "Yea he's big, but you've gotta treat onix just like these rocks. If geodude can't catch you neither can onix, ok?" Nidoran gave Red a slow nod, and he smiled, "Thanks bud."  
~~~~~~  
"Liam?"  
"Yea kid?"  
"I'm, I wanna take my gym challenge."   
Liam grinned, "Finally. I'll go grab some pokemon for you to test against." Red took a breath and went over to one of the fields, fiddling with a pokeball while he waited for Liam to come back. When he did, Liam took his spot and smiled, before a firm look came over his face and he spoke.  
"This will be a two on two battle between Challenger Red Kiro and Trainer Liam Toshikazu representing the Pewter City Gym. The battle will continue until one side is defeated or if I see reason to end it prematurely. As the Challenger, you must select your pokemon first." Red nodded, and sent out Charmander. A geodude came out to meet him, and Red took a breath.  
Fighting geodude was different from training with one. The rocks were a little more accurate, a little faster. Charmander had a few close calls, but bit by bit, embers and the occasional metal claw whittled away at the geodude Liam had used. Then Liam sent out a graveler, and as much as Charmander fought, he could only do so much. Graveler was even faster, its attacks even bigger. Charmander managed to hit it with a few embers, but when a metal claw came out a ruthless tackle ended it. Nidoran did better. Nidoran was better suited for these. He weaved in and hit hard, scurrying behind graveler and staying as safe as possible outside of the attacks Red called out. When a poison sting hit the same spot a double kick had cracked open, the rock type flinched, but kept going. Poison wasn't nearly as strong against ground types, but it still did something if you could apply it. After a little more back and forth, Liam retreated with Graveler.  
"I'll sign you up for Thursday, ok kid?" Red nodded. "Keep practicing. Those double kicks could be a little faster. Brock isn't gonna know what hit him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. It took a little longer than it does in the games, but next chapter Red'll be fighting Brock and his onix.   
> If you're reading, please tell me what you think, even if its to tell me what I need to do better at. I want to improve after all. I hope you all have a great day.  
> Next chapter: Late Monday the first.


	6. Brock and a Hard Place

"Red Kiro. Red Kiro. Brock is ready for your badge challenge." Red took a breath and got up and walked the length of the gym. He'd tried to watch Brock's matches earlier, but after seeing three people fail against onix in a row, he just couldn't. Red stood across from the gym leader, who just stood there, arms crossed and unmoving. Liam was playing the announcer role today, and he gave Red a small smile that Red returned with a shaky nod.  
"This will be a gym badge battle between Challenger Red Kiro and Gym Leader Brock Harrison of the Pewter City Gym. Both sides will be using two pokemon." Only two? Blue had to go through three geodudes before he got to an onix. "The battle will go on until one side is defeated, and pokemon will only be withdrawn when they are fainted. Only the challenger may substitute pokemon. Leader, are you ready?"  
"Yes." Brock grabbed a pokeball from his waist. Red couldn't help but feel some deja vu- how was it Brock made every match start the same way, and why was it still unnerving?  
"Challenger, are you ready?"  
Red nodded his head, before remembering they needed him to say it. "Y-yes."  
"Leader, the first pokemon is yours."  
"Geodude, go."  
"Charmander." Nidoran was better suited for this. He was faster and wasn't weak to rock. That's why Red had to save him. He couldn't let the poison type get tired early on.  
"Challenger, the first move is yours."  
Red took a breath and adjusted his hat. He had to beat the geodude cleanly. "Go."  
He'd told Charmander the plan before coming over. They weren't good enough for him to work on his own, but not saying what you were doing was still something Red could use. The fire type took a breath, and held it for a moment, before smoke shot out. It wasn't perfect- Charmander had to cough some of it out and it took time to prepare- but Red was given the first move and he was going to take advantage.  
"Rock throw." It was blind. They both knew it. The attack went into the smoke and landed with a thud somewhere inside. In response, geodude took an ember to the face it didn't see coming. It capitalized and another rock went after the source.  
Charmander flew in from a few feet to the right to slam a metal claw into the joint of its arm.  
"Dude!"  
"Smack it away."  
"Ember." Charmander stepped back, firing the ember a little early and getting grazed by the rock type as a result, but then he pushed in with another metal claw. Stay just out of range and ember. Punish swings. Rock throw took time to prepare, so that was something Red was mostly safe from this close up.  
"Rock tomb."  
"Dodge." Charmander rolled to the right to duck under the rock tomb that just appeared, and slammed another metal claw in for payback. "Back." Charmander stepped back and a rock landed between the two. He ran around and fired an ember into geodude's crossed and prepared arms, before getting smashed with a tackle that was already on its way.  
"Char!"  
"Plan A."  
"Rock tomb. Don't let them approach."  
"Tag." Charmander ducked and dodged, firing embers as he approached and stopping his approach mostly when Red warned him back. These were bigger, faster, and more accurate than they were used to, but they'd gotten pretty good at dodging rock tombs. "Over and metal claw. Finish it." Charmander jumped on top of and over the last rock between him and geodude, claws shining in the gym's light.  
"Rock throw." The rock came quickly, and Charmander slashed, sending it to the side but throwing himself off course. Instead of a dead on hit, the metal claw hit geodude in the side, sending it rolling. Charmander landed harder than Red hoped.  
Geodude staggered to its feet at the same time as Charmander, but a quick ember was enough for the rock type to drop, drained.  
"Geodude is unable to battle! Leader, send out your next pokemon."  
"Charmander now."  
"Your Charmander is well raised." Brock said, "It won't be enough to win however. Onix! Go!"  
Onix looked bigger from down here. A lot bigger. It easily could have looked through Red's bedroom window from outside and probably have enough room to stay off Mom's garden. Red took an automatic step back, and Charmander coughed early, the smokescreen he'd been preparing coming out in a thick blob that hid him well enough, but didn't give him much space.  
"Smack it." Onix raised its tail, and swung straight for the smoke. There really wasn't anywhere in it safe from onix.  
"Now." The smokescreen faded in an instant, and Red let out a sigh of relief when Charmander didn't immediately get flung completely out of the field. The fire type was clinging to onix's tail for dear life, claws glowing as he dug them in just enough to get a hold. Onix looked down, almost seeming surprised.  
"Hurry." Charmander let go and sprinted up onix's side, making it a few boulders up before slamming his claws into one of the joints and firing embers in as fast as he could. Onix flinched.  
"Fling it off." Onix's entire body shook, flailing wildly as the pitifully small fire type did its best to hang on. He lasted a few seconds, but it wasn't enough. "Rock tomb before it lands."  
"Block it!" It was no use. Charmander's claws raised to smack it aside, ember flew to slow it down, but a rock twice his size slammed into Charmander and he landed with a thud, unconscious.  
"Charmander is unable to battle. Challenger, send out your next pokemon."  
Red took a breath and adjusted his hat. Onix didn't look tired. At all really. It glanced down at the scorched spot where Charmander had been firing embers, but it seemed more curious about it than in pain. Red adjusted his footing, before grabbing a pokeball.  
"Nidoran, fast."  
"Ran!"  
"Rock tomb." These rocks were far bigger than geodude's, but they were slower. Nidoran weaved through them, but getting closer was hard. Red ordered him to get on top of them, and a swing of Onix's tail cleared the space in front of Nidoran before he could jump. Rocks kept falling, and Nidoran fought for every inch closer he got. Finally.  
"Now." Just as onix swung its tail, Nidoran jumped. He didn't go for the tail itself, but instead jumped and landed a few joints down from where Charmander had peppered the rock snake. A half second to approach, and one foot after another slammed into the joint.  
"Nix!"   
It hurt! Red grinned. "Crack in."  
"Shake it off!"  
"Retreat." Nidoran bounced away using onix's first shake as spring.  
"Don't let it do that again."  
"Don't let it hit you." Onix swung its tail to ward off an approach, and Nidoran jumped over it. A second swing was landed on, but onix slammed its tail into the ground hard enough that Nidoran had to bail out, before being forced to avoid rock tombs again.  
The battle kept going. Soon there were so many rocks it was almost hard to tell where onix was. Nidoran could hide easily, but onix could just as easily swing and clear away the entire area and force him to come back out. Two more times Nidoran got back on onix's back and slammed into that spot with double kicks.  
After the second one made a crack big enough for Red to see, he switched to poison stings. Rock types resisted poison because it was hard to get inside. That crack was a way past that. As a ground type it wouldn't do much, but if Red could get that poison he'd have a better shot than if he didn't.  
"Impressive." Brock said after the second time poison sting slammed into onix. "Onix, wrap!"  
"On-ix!" Onix lowered its head and plowed through the area Nidoran was hiding in, before circling and closing in on the poison type.  
"Jump over it."  
"Smack it out of the sky."  
"Double kick off of it." Nidoran wasn't nearly as strong as onix. Saying it was would be insane. But the double kick was able to counter just enough force that instead of going flying into a forced retreat, Nidoran was able to launch himself a little farther to the side, and force himself to skid to a stop on the opposite side of the arena, near Red's feet.  
Neither trainer said anything. Both pokemon stayed perfectly still.  
"Tag."  
"Rock tomb."  
Both pokemon launched into action at the same time. The rocks were coming faster, blocking space even more than before and making the path Nidoran had to take even more winding. He broke through, narrowly dodging a swing of Onix's tail and clambering up the rock types back. His horn glowed, and he slammed it into the weak point again. Onix flinched, and Nidoran slammed a double kick into that spot in order to launch away.  
Brock studied his pokemon for a moment. "Burned and poisoned." He said. Wait, the burn stuck? Onix hadn't seemed to care so Red thought it just didn't work! "Onix, take it out now."  
"Dodge." Onix's tail slammed into the ground hard enough to make sand hide Nidoran entirely. Luckily he ran back towards Red because the follow up was so fast that he barely managed to clear it in time. Then onix's head slammed into the ground hard enough to bounce Nidoran, and the poison type darted forward to climb on top before onix could get out of the way. Onix flailed, and Nidoran ran back, before returning fast enough to get a solid double kick in and flee.  
Nidoran had great endurance, but he was slowing. A solid hit would take him out. Even with a burn and poison, Onix looked strong as ever.  
"Rock tomb. Bury it."  
Red could barely keep track. Onix started flinging multiple rocks at once, waves coming that even working together Red and Nidoran were barely able to navigate without getting trapped. Approaching wasn't even something they considered. Only surviving.  
An eternity passed, and a mountain formed. Nidoran was panting, exhausted on top.  
And onix? Onix glanced back at Brock, who nodded. The rock type let out a long breath, before slowly lowering itself to the ground and closing its eyes.  
"Onix is unable to battle! The winner is Challenger Red Kiro!"  
Red's legs felt like jelly, but he hadn't been the one running. As soon as the announcement came Nidoran collapsed. Red took a step forward and staggered, but he kept moving and slowly climbed the pile of rocks that had been launched at his tiny poison type. When he made it, Red smiled.  
"Great job buddy. Rest up, ok?" Nidoran was too tired to do more than look at him before Red returned the pokemon.  
"Excellent work." Brock had climbed up too, and he offered Red a hand to help the younger trainer get back down. "To defeat my onix with a fire and a poison type is no easy task, even with super effective moves."  
"Thank you sir." Red muttered.  
"Your pokemon are well trained. Rock tomb for agility training is something I've seen before, but coming up with it in your first month as a trainer was smart."  
"I had to be able to dodge onix somehow." Red admitted.  
"At this stage onix is an almost cruel challenge, I know." Brock said, "But you overcame the odds. And for that I grant you this." The boulder badge was simple, an all gray octagon with a smaller one raised in the middle. "Congratulations."  
Red smiled and nodded.  
"And one more thing." Brock reached into his pocket and pulled out a disc case. "You've earned this. It's a TM for rock tomb. Charmander can learn it, but that doesn't mean you should use it right away." Brock explained, "You can only use it once, and after you do you still have to take the time to train them in using the move. TMs are expensive, so don't use it until you're sure it's the right time."  
"Yes sir."  
"Good luck young man." Red nodded, and the gym leader walked away, tossing a pokeball to release a steelix that started resetting the field while the gym leader went into the back room.  
"Not bad, kid." Liam grinned at Red. "Brock doesn't pull his punches does he?"  
Red reached up to dust off his hat. At some point sand and debris had kicked up enough to get all over him. Liam laughed , running a hand through his hair to show how much he had on himself.  
"We just learned to get used to it." He admitted, "Most of us shower here after work just so we don't track dirt through our houses every day. It only kinda helps." Red cracked a small smile. "Next stop for you's Cerulean right?" Nod. "Man, and you picked a fire type starter? You sure like making things hard on yourself huh kid?" Liam stretched, "Good luck with it. If you and Nidoran ever need some more help, I'll be here, K?"  
Red nodded, "Thank you."  
"Not a problem. Kinda what we do." Liam glanced over as Brock left the back room, before looking back, "I gotta get back to work. See ya next time kid."  
"Goodbye Liam.  
~~~~~~  
Red sank down into a seat in the waiting area. Neither of his pokemon were hurt that bad, but Nidoran especially had stressed himself pretty bad and they needed some time to recover. He still couldn't believe he won honestly. The pokedex said onix were really good at hiding how tired they were, but seeing it in person was a whole different thing. One second it looked like it could go all day and the next it just gave up. It fought right through a burn too.  
"Uuuuugh." Red looked up as a girl who looked to be in her late teens or early twenties collapsed into the chair across from him, "Dear Mew that battle was hell." She saw Red looking and added, "Did you know he has alolan golems for his later badge teams? Cause now I do." She leaned back, "Paralyzed my poliwrath and suddenly my whole plan's ruined. Thank god He didn’t send it out earlier." Red just sat there awkwardly for a moment. "Sorry I'm moaning over here. Just had to get that out of my system." She sat up and got a better look at Red, "Hey, you're the kid who went before me. Congrats on your first badge."  
"Um, thanks." Red muttered, Congrats on your..." What badge was she even on?  
"5th. Where're you heading next?"  
Red paused for a moment, before hesitantly answering, "Cerulean."  
"Hey that's where I'm heading." She grinned, before glancing at the pokemon center's counter, "Tomorrow at least. Gotta make sure they're fine before I leave." The girl shook her head, "Sorry, been traveling so much I must've forgot my manners. My name's Michelle."  
"Red."   
"Nice to meet you Red." Michelle smiled.  
"Red Kiro, your pokemon are ready." Red gave Michelle a small nod, before getting up and going to grab his pokemon. "Charmander is still sore, but Nidoran is doing just fine. They just need to rest. No battling or training for the rest of the day, ok?" Red nodded to Nurse Joy and took the two pokeballs. "Have a great day." Red gave her a small smile before turning and heading outside.  
"Come on out guys."  
"Ran!"  
"Cha!"  
Red smiled down at the two pokemon and kneeled, "We did it guys." Red said. He'd kept his badge in his pocket so he could show them, "Our first badge." Red stopped talking while both pokemon cheered, "You both did great. Thank you so much."  
"Cha! Ard Char!"  
"Ran-do!"  
"Tomorrow the three of us are heading to Cerulean. That's where we can get our second badge. You two excited?" Both nodded, and Red's smile grew. "Then rest up ok? You've earned it." Red returned the two pokemon and went back inside. Michelle saw him and waved him over.  
"Hey, if you're heading to Cerulean, you wanna travel together?" She asked. "It's a long trip, and I haven't had a travel buddy in a while. If we're going the same way we may as well go together right?" Red hesitated for a moment, and she continued. “Come on, I don’t bite.” She said, “If you’re leaving tomorrow, one of us would just end up staring at the other’s back all day anyway.” She held out a hand. Red looked at it for a moment, before hesitantly taking it.  
She was right. They’d be going the same way anyway.  
~~~~~~  
Michelle, Red decided, liked to talk. Or maybe it was just that she hadn't had that many chances to talk lately. She'd been up by the time Red was, at one of the pokemon center's computers. Red got her attention and sat down to feed his pokemon and wait for her to finish whatever she was doing. Red showed her the restaurant Blue had brought him to, since it had better food than the pokemon center had. She was collecting badges, but not in any particular order. She just went to the gym closest to her, and when she beat it moved on to the next. Apparently training for the Viridian Gym while waiting for the gym leader to come back had been enough to narrowly win against Brock.  
When they finished eating, the two headed down to Route 3. Route 3 was busier than any of the other routes Red had been on so far. He wondered why. The route was built along the edge of the mountain, right before the incline got too big to comfortably walk. There were still spots where it dropped suddenly. Craters dotted the landscape, some still filled with rocks and others empty.   
While they walked, Michelle talked. Apparently Michelle was the oldest, and she had two younger siblings. Her sister didn't really want to be a trainer, but when she was old enough to own one Michelle had caught and given her a pet meowth.  
"My little brother's so excited to be a trainer though. He's close to your age, but Mom won't let him take the trainer test until he's fifteen at least."  
"Hey!" Michelle paused, and both of them turned to see a girl somewhere between their ages hop down one of the ledges. "Are either of you trainers?"  
"Yup." Michelle said, "Beat Brock yesterday and we're heading to Cerulean." The girl looked at Red.  
"Yea right." She said, "You're just a kid. What's in those pokeballs? A rattata and a caterpie?" Red bristled.  
"And what about you?" Michelle said, "Do you have any badges?"  
"Just Brock's." She said with a shrug, "I'm more interested in the battle facilities honestly. Still, there's no way a child is good enough to have a badge."  
"Why don't you put your money where your mouth is?" Michelle said.  
"Huh?"  
"50 bucks says he can beat you."  
"Huh?" That time it was Red. Wait, she wanted him to have a money match? Yea, some trainers did, but he'd never planned to be one of them!  
"Sure. I could use some extra cash." The girl said with a shrug, "Two on two?"  
"Just one." Michelle said, "That way you still have one for the trip back to town."   
The girl huffed. "Oh you are so on! Oddish!"  
Red stood there, stunned for a moment, before Michelle rolled her eyes, "Relax. You're not even the one betting on this fight." Red just stared at her for a second, before shaking his head.  
"Nidoran."  
"Ran!"  
"Not even gonna use the fire type huh?" Michelle muttered to herself. It wasn't anything like that. Charmander was just more sore than Nidoran, so Red wanted to let him rest. "Battle, Begin!"  
"Razor leaf!"  
"Tag. Peck."  
Nidoran darted to the side to dodge the razor leaf, and started closing in quickly.  
"Sleep powder!"   
"Stay back." Red didn't even need to say it. As soon as the oddish started preparing the move, he darted back to stay far out of range. "Ease in just a little."  
"Acid!"  
"Now." Nidoran ran under the poison type attack and slammed into oddish hard enough to send the grass type flying. "Catch it before it lands."  
"Stun spore!"  
"Circle around back." Nidoran ran around oddish, dodging the stun spore and slamming into it again.   
"Absorb!"  
"Left." Nidoran dodged left and ran in.  
"Sleep powder!"  
"Hold your breath." Nidoran took a big breath and plowed straight through the attack to slam into oddish.   
"Oddish!"  
"Dish dish!"  
"Double kick." Nidoran skidded to a stop right in front of oddish and turned around to slam one foot after another into it. Oddish rolled back, and didn't move.  
"Wow. Down already." Michelle said. "I thought Brock was supposed to check cocky kids with grass types."  
"But, but," The girl stuttered, "That can't be his pokemon! You tricked me!"  
"Prove it."  
"He's just a kid! There's no way he has a pokemon that strong!"  
Red just shook his head and reached into his pocket. He pulled out his pokedex, and the girl's eyes widened.  
"Is that a pokedex?" Red nodded and scanned Nidoran, before stepping closer to the girl and showing her the screen. It showed Nidoran's basic status, moves, and importantly, trainer. She didn't even look at the screen though.  
"So you- that means-" She put her face in her hands, "I just picked a fight with some pokemon prodigy kid didn’t I?"  
Michelle snapped her fingers. "That's why you have a starter. I figured you were some rich kid, but you got one of them Oak Grant things didn't you?" Red nodded and bowed his head to hide the blush that was sprouting up. Him and Blue grew up around pokemon. It wasn't that special.  
"That nidoran isn't even your starter?" In response Red just sent out Charmander.  
"Cha!"  
"So..." Michelle said. "About that bet..."  
"Fine fine. I shouldn't have run my mouth." The girl muttered, reaching into her pocket to pull out her wallet.   
"Eh keep it." Michelle waved it off, "I'm not much for taking money from kids. Just wanted to teach you a lesson. Don't judge a trainer by their size." The girl bowed her head.  
"Yes ma'am."  
"Now go get your oddish healed up. Red, let's get going." Red returned his pokemon and nodded a goodbye to the random girl, before adjusting his hat and heading back down the path. They just walked in silence for a little, before Michelle spoke up again.  
"Man, that was fun to watch. Always did bug me when someone acted like that. Yea being strong helps explore, and being older usually means you've got more experience. Doesn't mean you're worthless as a battler if you're not some big burly psychic." She shook her head, "Easy way to make money when I'm running low though. Way better than staying still for a month and getting one of those temp trainer jobs." Conversation faded back away as they walked down Route 3.  
They crossed maybe two thirds of the route before the sun got low enough to set up camp. Michelle was a lot better at it than Red was. Experience, probably. She set up her tent and repelled their little campsite before coming over and helping Red set up his tent. Then she sat down on her folded up sleeping bag and tossed out a single pokeball.  
"Reon!"  
"Morning to you, too sleepy head." Michelle reached over and pet the umbreon’s head. "Hungry?'  
"Vi!" She laughed and started digging through her bag. After a while, she pulled out a can of food and opened it, setting it down for the glowing dark type to eat. Red watched the whole thing happen, before shaking his head and doing the same for his two pokemon. Then he grabbed his Bunsen burner and used it to start heating up some food for himself while Michelle got her own dinner cooking.  
"Is umbreon your starter?" Red asked softly.  
"Yup." She said with a smile. "It's a tradition in my family. When someone passes their trainer test, whoever went last finds them their starter. No breeders for us, we've gotta do it all on our own. My uncle found this little guy for me." She scratched under the dark type's chin and earned a pleased 'brii' "I didn't have a favorite pokemon or anything, and for some reason he decided that meant he had to get the most adaptable pokemon around. Took him a month." She laughed "My aunt was so mad when he got back." Michelle fell back, looking up at the peak of Mt Moon. She was quiet for a minute, before,"My job will be to go up there." She added softly.  
Red looked at her in confusion.  
"My little brother loves charmander.” She explained. “One of his favorite pokemon. There's some crocodile pokemon from Unova he likes too, but if he wants one he can fill out the paperwork and fly there himself. I'm gonna stick with Mt. Moon. Although... might need to get a fire type of my own to do it. Maybe a magmar."  
"Good luck." Red said.  
"It's not about luck. I'm gonna get it for him, no matter what."  
Conversation lulled as the two of them ate. Charmander walked over and talked with Michelle's Umbreon, but Nidoran was perfectly happy to curl up in Red's lap and snooze. The sun got low enough that Charmander's tail was the main source of light, and the two trainers returned their pokemon before turning in for the night.  
~~~~~~  
West Route 4 was pretty much an hour walk up a steep slope. There were a few craters like the ones that dotted Route 3, but beyond that it was just a straight walk up the base of the mountain. There was a pokemon center at the end, and Red and Michelle used it to make sure their pokemon were ready for the trip, before setting off through the tunnel and inside.  
Mt. Moon was, to Red's surprise, lit. This section at least. The lights weren't bright, and it wasn't exactly easy to see, but there were just enough that they wouldn't be walking into the walls or anything. Long shadows were everywhere, and Red could almost always either hear something beyond his vision, or hear it.  
"I think the minimal lighting is creepier than if they just left it dark." Michelle muttered. "What's up with that?"  
Red shrugged. "Harder to get lost?"  
"Probably." Michelle said and sent out Umbreon, "Light it up for us?" she asked, and the eeveelution started to glow. That was at least a little better. The two of them walked for a few minutes, silently looking around.  
"Boo!" They all jumped, and Umbreon even started glowing a dark purple like he was about to attack. They stopped when they realized what made that sound, or rather who. There was a girl maybe a year older than Red, who saw the two of them and clapped a hand over her mouth.  
"Oh- Oh god I'm so sorry I'm waiting for my friends, and I heard footsteps and I thought you were them! Oh god I'm so sorry!"  
"Yea yea I'll accept that apology when my heart rate goes back to normal." Michelle snapped, "Why the hell would you be waiting in a place like this anyway?"  
"You two didn't hear? There's a rumor going around that fossils have been popping up the main paths. We're gonna find them!"  
Michelle sighed, "And you're here early because?"  
"I'm not early! They're late! That's why I was gonna scare them!"  
"Maybe next time wait till you can see them, ok?"  
"Yes ma'am, sorry ma'am!"  
Red and Michelle walked past the girl, and a minute or so later, Michelle muttered, "Crazy girl. Why wouldn't you just wait outside?" Red could only shrug.  
The trip through Mt. Moon wasn't nearly as exciting as you'd hope. There just wasn't anything to see really. Rocks, boulders, stones, and more rocks.   
There were also a decent number of people. Most of them were trainers, but they were almost all looking around, either through the rocks or in some cases even smashing the walls and ground with tools. Were this many people really looking for fossils? Fossil pokemon were cool, but even if there was one near here, these people would probably break it at the rate they were going. Red and Michelle just left them to it.  
A few times the two of them walked close enough to annoy a wild geodude, and when they did Red used Charmander to deal with it so that they wouldn't have to get rid of their main lightsource. The bigger nuisance was the zubats. They were endless! If it wasn't one dive bombing them, it was one angering a paras and making it attack them instead. Or sometimes, the little bloodsuckers did both, and had to be scared away with several embers before they got the hint.  
At one point a whole swarm of zubat attacked them at once. They had to run away from them, and if it wasn’t for both of them following Umbreon’s light they would’ve been separated. Thankfully they were still on the path with the lights at least. It would’ve been really bad if they fell in a hole or something.  
Honestly, if they didn't want to deal with trainers, why wouldn't they go down any of the paths that weren't lit? Mt. Moon was huge, and they weren't using that much of it.  
After a while, the lighting ended, and the only thing visible near it was a ladder descending into the darkness. Red and Michelle shared a look, before she walked towards it muttering "This better be the right way." Michelle climbed down, before calling up and catching Umbreon as he jumped after his trainer. Red followed after.  
The path they ended up on was narrow, and the fact it looked more manmade was a good sign. It was narrow and relatively straight, even if the ground wasn't exactly even. There were lights here too, but only one in ten seemed to be working, with even those flickering some of the time. The two of them walked down the path, and after maybe 20 minutes it took a sharp turn and slowly slanted downwards, deeper into Mt. Moon.  
"If this path splits up we're backtracking, agreed?" Red nodded. He didn't want to get lost down here. Who knew how long it would take someone to find them? The path eventually came to a stop, another ladder there. Red and Michelle shared a look, and both stepped forward. "Hey, if this leads into some steelix's den I'm at least a little more likely to be able to fend it off." Michelle said with a forced laugh. She took the ladder and went down, once more followed by Umbreon with Red taking up the rear.  
"Well." The area they'd dropped into was huge and well lit. Down beneath them, machinery was sat, dormant. Michelle glanced back at Red and smiled, "I... think we might have taken a wrong turn."  
"Yea..."  
"Still, if someone left machinery lying around they probably didn't go far. We can just ask them the way, right?" Red shrugged, and Michelle looked around, "Besides, unless one of us takes a dive this is still pretty much a one way path." Michelle returned Umbreon and the two of them started walking through the digsite. It was split into two parts by the path they were on, but when the path crumbled down the middle they had to take stairs down into one of the digsites and up again on the other side. Then the path wrapped around and went behind the wall, leading to a tunnel and, much to their surprise, another opening, albeit a much smaller one. Red turned to the side and froze.  
"Um... Michelle?"  
"What is i- Oh..." Slumped against the wall was a man wearing all black, a clipboard by his side and a bit of blood matting his hair. "We need to find someone quick." She said. The two upped their pace, looking around. Shouldn't there be more people here? If it was a dig site wouldn't it make sense if-  
"Hey stop! I found these fossils, they're both mine! Muk, sludge bomb!"  
"Oh sh- magneton!" Michelle threw a pokeball and sent out the steel type. It let out a cry as the poison blob hit it, but it was out of surprise, not pain. "Stay behind me Red." Their attacker was a tall, lanky man in a lab coat with a crazed look in his eye. He was standing over two rocks, and he was holding a shovel in a death grip. Red reached to his side and tossed out both his pokemon. They probably wouldn’t do much, but he felt like having them out might be a good idea.  
"They're mine! Understand me?! Muk body slam!"  
"Thunderbolt! We don't want your stupid fossils!"  
"Liar! I won't let you take them!" Michelle growled, and gave up on that. Magneton had the clear advantage here. Despite the madman's repeated attempts, muk's poison moves couldn't hurt magneton, and all it had besides that looked to be body slam. Michelle made sure to keep magneton between them and muk, but it was easily going to win the ma-  
"Explosion!"  
Michelle swore and dove back, tackling Red to the ground as the cave shook. Magneton hadn't been prepared for that in the slightest, and when Red looked back, both pokemon were on the ground, unconscious.  
"Are you trying to get us all killed?!"  
"Leave my fossils alone! Electrode! thunderbolt!"  
"Dodge it! Be ready to protect if he uses explosion!"  
"Brii?!"  
"He's crazy! Just use swift!" This battle was less one sided. Electrode was fast, and easily able to run around Umbreon, so Michelle didn't bother trying to force their position. She stuck to wide effect moves and moves that were near impossible to miss.  
"Shoot the trainer!"  
"Breon!" Electrode fired a thunderbolt, and Umbreon ran, leaping in the way and taking the attack directly.  
"Umbreon!" Michelle ran forward to catch her pokemon, who twitched involuntarily. She glared at the scientist. "That's IT! Submission!" Poliwrath appeared on top of the electrode, grabbing the electric type in one hand and slamming it into the ground. It sparked, but didn't get back up.  
"Mine! Mine mine mine mine!" He sent out a weezing, and the battle continued. This one was brutal. Poliwrath must have heard what the scientist did because it seemed just as furious as Michelle. It barreled through sludge waves to land hard hits, and twice had to get in the way when an attack was launched at Michelle and Red.  
"Explo-"  
"Dampen it!" Michelle snarled. Poliwrath fired a water gun and soaked weezing just long enough to grab it one by the smaller head and fling it so hard it stuck in the wall. Poliwrath glared at the scientist.  
"Ok ok I'll share! We'll both take a fossil! No need to be greedy!"  
"I don't want your fossils!"  
"Lies lies lies! Why else would you all fight so hard to keep me out?! To take this place for yourself?!"  
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about!"  
"Air slash." From behind Red and Michelle, blades of wind came flying, slashing into poliwrath hard enough to draw blood. The water type staggered, stunned, before falling to the ground."  
"Poliwrath!" Michelle turned around, and paled. Red did too.  
Standing there, with a golbat floating between them and a pokeball dangling from his hand, was a man in a black suit. Unlike the unconscious one however, this man's suit had a bright red R across the chest.  
"Team Rocket..."   
"Good good. You recognize us. That makes this easier." The man reached to his side and pulled out a gun, aiming it at Michelle. "I was wondering what happened to Tony. He's supposed to be keeping people out, you see? He'll be getting in trouble with the boss no doubt. But you don't care about that now do you? Pokeballs." He ordered. "The whole belt girl. I don't want to see you trying to send anything else out. Slowly now. No sudden moves. You too I suppose. We may find some use for whatever you have twerp."  
"Just let us go." Michelle said, "We don't want any trouble."  
"Most people don't." The rocket said, "Sadly you all showing up has doubled ours. Pokeballs. Now." His eyes flickered to the side. "Golbat, catch that charmander would you?"  
"Bat!"  
"Char!" Charmander dove to the side and fired an ember, but a flap of the golbat's wings put it out. The bat landed on Charmander and wrapped its wings around him. Fangs sank in around the fire type's neck and he froze.  
"I'm getting impatient."  
"Red, do what he says."  
"But-"  
"We don't have a choice." Michelle said, slowly reaching to her side to unclip her belt. "We can go find you new pokemon. Maybe even one of them will want to play tag." Tag? What did she-  
Nidoran perked up from where he was hiding. The rocket had walked right past him and he had no clue.  
Tag.  
"Listen to her boy. Either give me the belt, or Golbat'll turn a light snack into a meal. Got it?" Golbat must have bit down harder because Charmander let out a small noise of pain.  
"O-ok..." Red slowly reached to his side.   
"Drop them on the floor."  
Red's eyes flicked over to Michelle, before he took a breath. "Tag."  
"Tag? What are yo-"  
The rocket staggered forward as Nidoran slammed into his back. His gun slid off to the side, and golbat's pokeball-  
Red dove forward and caught it. "Return!" He pointed it at the flying type and it disappeared, leaving Charmander to fall forward with two pinpricks in his neck.  
"Brat! Go Rati-"  
"Freeze!" The rocket turned to see his own gun aimed at his head. Shakily, in a white knuckled grip, but with Michelle's finger on the trigger.  
"Have you ever even held one of those girl?"  
"Shut up! We're leaving! You, you, don't follow ok?"  
"What's to stop me from siccing this raticate on you as soon as your back's turned?"  
"Crobat." Michelle said, and one of her pokeballs opened. The four winged bat appeared and Michelle gave it an order "If he moves, use air cutter."  
"Bat?"  
"He-he attacked us. He’s dangerous."  
"Cro!" It turned and gave the rocket a mean look. He froze.  
"We're leaving." Michelle took a step backwards, the shaking gun in one hand and her pokemon belt in the other. Red returned both his pokemon, and followed. "Tell me where to go Red." Red forced himself to look away from the rocket so he could slowly, step by step, guide Michelle around a couple of corners until the rocket slipped out of sight. Instantly, she turned and the two of them sprinted down the path. They saw a ladder and Michelle grabbed Red to toss him up a few feet so they could clamber up as fast as physically possible. "Crobat!" Michelle yelled as she made it up, and a moment later, her pokemon flew up after them. Red could hear a pokeball echo behind him, but he didn't slow down. He climbed a second ladder as fast as he could, and when he saw light he sprinted for the exit. The ground sloped suddenly, and he fell forward, rolling and flying down a ledge before slamming into the ground. He gasped for air, barely hearing the second thud as Michelle landed next to him. They were alive. They'd made it out. Both of them and-  
"Charmander!" Red grabbed the first pokeball on his belt and manually opened it. The fire type was on his side, not moving. Red cried his name again and rolled the fire type over so he could look at his face. "Come on buddy. Wake up." Red dug into his bag for what felt like an eternity too long, before just dumping it on the ground and grabbing a potion. He sprayed the bite marks, and Charmander didn't move. "Charmander come on! Please get up!" The fire type's eyes flickered, and slowly opened.  
"Ard..."  
"Charmander! You're ok!" Red pulled the fire type in for a hug. "Thank god. Stay in your pokeball ok? We're going to the pokemon center." Red returned his starter and shoved things back in his bag. He left most of it probably, but Red took off down the path, Michelle right behind him. There were a few trainers here, and without fail every one of them practically leapt out of their way as the two sprinted down the path. Red jumped down a ledge and fell, scraping his hands and pushing through the sting to get back to his feet. He could see Cerulean, and he pushed his lungs to take in air as he got closer. The pokemon center was close to route 4 thank god, and Red's shoulder slammed into the door because it didn't open in time to get completely out of his way.  
"Red?"  
"Nurse Joy my charmander's hurt!" Red elbowed his way past the people in line and put the pokeball on the counter. She took it quickly and put it in the healing machine. Diagnostics came up, and her eyes widened.  
"What happened?" She demanded.   
"Team Rocket." Michelle staggered in after Red, gasping for air and covered in dirt. "In Mount Moon." A chansey came over to try and help her, but she waved it off and made her way to the counter, crobat fluttering around her nervously. She placed her pokeballs on the counter too. "Plus a psycho who almost collapsed the cave on us."  
"Red are you ok?" Red turned to see Blue standing there, pale. "You, you fought Team Rocket?"  
Red gave him a shaky nod. "Their golbat bit Charmander. Is he ok?"  
"It's a good thing you returned him as soon as you did." Nurse Joy said, "Heavy blood loss. We'll need to keep him overnight at the very least. With enough rest though, he should be just fine." Blue barely managed to catch Red as his legs gave out.  
"He'll be ok." Red repeated. "He'll be fine." Red let out a shaky breath, and Blue slowly left him to support his own weight. "Can you take care of Nidoran to-" Red reached to his side to grab Nidoran's pokeball and froze.  
There was an extra one there.  
"I took the golbat." He said numbly. "I stole Team Rocket's pokemon.  
Blue started laughing. After a moment, Red and Michelle let out their own crazed laughs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes the pun for the title was necessary. I hope you all enjoy this chapter! If you have any critiques let me know! I'd love to improve. Have a good day everyone.
> 
> Next chapter: I should just start saying Tuesday mornings at this point. Tuesday the 9th.


	7. North of Cerulean

"There was a lot of, you know, a lot of machinery." Red said. It had taken maybe an hour for police to come for him and Michelle, and Red was currently sitting in Cerulean's police station across from someone who introduced herself as Detective Higgins.  
"Do you know what any of it was for?"  
"It looked like mining." Red said, "That weird scientist guy found fossils, so maybe it had something to do with that?" Detective Higgins leaned back.  
"How did you find Team Rocket's Operation in the first place?"  
"We just followed the lights ma'am." Red said, "They lead us straight there." There hadn't been anything else to it really! Red wasn't sure how no one else found it before them. Detective Higgins looked at him for a moment, before giving Red a smile.  
"Thank you young man." She said, "I don't think I have any more questions for now. Are you planning on staying in Cerulean?" Red nodded, "If I have any more questions I'll ask Nurse Joy to let you know, ok?" Red nodded again. "Do you have any questions?"  
"Um, what's going to happen to, happen to the golbat?" Detective Higgins frowned.  
"If we find an original trainer, we’ll investigate and hopefully try to see it returned. If Team Rocket caught it themselves, or it's too violent, we’ll send it somewhere for rehabilitation and leave it for them to decide."  
"Like Oak Labs?" Red hadn't ever gotten to go near them, but he'd watched a few times when gramps or one of the workers went out to the far end of the lab to handle the aggressive pokemon.  
"Oak Labs is one of the places we send them, yes." The detective said, "You've been?" Red nodded. He'd half been raised there it felt like. "Well if Oak Labs accepts it that's probably where the golbat will go. Who knows." Detective Higgins smiled, "Maybe you'll meet it again."  
Detective Higgins let Red leave, and Red had only just opened the door when he heard someone shouting and ranting.  
"They want my fossils! Of course they do! I'm not going to let them take both of them, you hear me?!" Red froze and looked back at the detective. That voice sounded almost like...  
Detective Higgins must have had a similar thought. "Could you identify that scientist if you saw him." Red nodded, and the detective smiled. "Well let's see if there's actually two fossil maniacs in town or not." She guided Red back through the police station, and when they got back to the front, they could see three officers doing their best to restrain one man in a dirt covered lab coat. Yup, that was him. Before Red could confirm it to Detective Higgins, the man saw Red and tore free of all three of his captors. Red flinched back, his arms lifting up as though that would stop the man, before something hard and rough was shoved into his arms.  
"There! You have a fossil! Now leave me and my other one alone you hear me! It's mine!" It was at that point that the officers must have had it with him, because in a flash of light a ghastly appeared between Red and the madman.  
"Slee" It stared at the man, and a moment later, he collapsed to the ground in a heap, snoring lightly.  
"I take it that was the mad scientist?" Detective Higgins said. Red just nodded, and she ran a hand over her face. "Well I guess we can interview him when he wakes up. Someone put him in a holding cell please." One of the three cops who'd been trying to subdue him hefted the man over his shoulder and walked away. Then the detective looked back at Red, "I'm going to have to ask you to hand that over. No clue what that man's done with it, but if it's one of the ones from your story it might be usable as evidence." Red handed it over without a word. He'd never even wanted the freaking thing! A fossil pokemon would be cool, but it wasn't worth any of what had happened to get it. "Thank you." The detective said, before sighing, "This day just got a whole lot longer." She muttered to herself. "You can go." She told Red, "If we need anything else we'll have Nurse Joy let you know, ok?"  
Red nodded and walked to the exit. He really wanted to check on Charmander as soon as he could. Nurse Joy said he should be fine, but Red wouldn't relax until the fire type was up and about, not lying in a hospital bed like that.  
~~~~~~  
Red didn't have the best night's sleep. When he got back to the pokemon center, Charmander was awake, and Red sat by his side for a little before Nurse Joy ushered him out saying that Charmander needed rest. After Blue tried to figure out what happened, he did his best to distract Red, but it didn't help and Red eventually just went to bed early. He couldn't seem to stay asleep either, and when the clock said it was 6 he just gave up and got up for the day. A quick shower, and he headed back downstairs. He managed to make himself go and pick at some food in the pokemon center’s cafeteria, before he went over to Nurse Joy at the counter and asked to see Charmander. A chansey guided him back to the room Charmander was in, and Red barely kept himself from running over and waking him up. Red sat next to his starter, looking through his pokedex for everything it had on golbat bites and charmander health (again), waiting for Charmander to wake up.  
"Ard?" Red's eyes immediately locked on his starter, who looked at him blearily, half asleep.  
"Charmander!" Red leaned closer, his pokedex lying forgotten as he focused on his starter, "How are you doing buddy?" Charmander reached up and ran a clawed hand over the wrap on his neck.  
"Mander char charmander." He said, giving Red a so-so gesture. Red sighed in relief, slumping a bit.  
"I'm glad you're ok." He said, reaching over to give Charmander's head a gentle rub. "I was worried."  
"Man char. on."  
"I see our patient is awake." Red looked up to see Nurse Joy in the doorway quietly letting herself in. "How is he doing?"  
"He said he's doing ok." Red said. "Not great, but still better than yesterday." Nurse Joy came closer and helped Charmander sit up, before taking his tail out of what Red had to assume was fireproof sheets.  
"His tail is burning brighter too." She said, "Not as bright as normal though is it?"  
"Maybe a little over half?" Red couldn't be sure, but somewhere between half and three quarters was his best guess.  
"That's good." Nurse Joy said, "Charmander, I'm going to redress your wounds ok? Hold still."  
"Man." Nurse Joy carefully unraveled the cloth around Charmander's neck, and after a few rounds, Red could see pricks of red. When she was done, Nurse Joy took a damp cloth and gently cleaned the two pinpricks.  
"This is healing well." She said, "I'm afraid it will probably scar, but he should be able to take these off tomorrow." Charmander reached up to touch it, and Nurse Joy grabbed his hand, "Not if you keep picking at it though." She said, staring at the fire type until he nodded, before letting him put his hand down. Then she took a roll of bandage and started wrapping it again. "I know it itches, but doing that will make it worse, ok?"  
"Man..."  
When Nurse Joy was done wrapping Charmander's injuries, she stood up and smiled, "If you would like, I believe he should feel well enough to go with you."  
"Really?"  
"Yes." Nurse Joy said, "You'll have to be careful though. It should go without saying he shouldn't battle or train, but I'll say it anyway. He should also spend time outside of his pokeball." Red nodded, "If you want to go for a walk, Half an hour walking then a minimum half an hour in his pokeball so he can rest, or at least 15 minutes of the hour if he stays out of his pokeball. If he seems tired, he needs more rest. Do you understand?" Red nodded, and Nurse Joy smiled. "Great. I'd also recommend bringing him here for the night so we can monitor him, ok?" Red nodded, and Nurse Joy started walking to the door, "Have a great day young man."  
"Thank you." Red said softly as she left the room. Red turned to Charmander. "So what do you say Charmander? You wanna walk around or you wanna take it easy?"  
"Char Charmander Char!" Red helped the fire type out of bed and to the floor.  
"I thought you'd say that." Red said with a smile. "First let's get something to eat. Then we can ask Blue if there's any cool places around here to check out. That sound like a plan?"  
"Cha!"  
Red walked with Charmander back to the front of the pokemon center, giving Nurse Joy a nod and a smile, before heading outside so he could give Charmander his breakfast.  
~~~~~~  
Blue took longer to wake up than it took Charmander to eat. Red wasn't really surprised by that, and he spent the time in between first restocking on supplies, then wandering around until he found the gym. It was only five or ten minutes from the pokemon center, and when Red wandered back that way he saw Blue making his way out, half asleep. Red fell in step next to his friend, and after maybe 30 seconds of waiting for him to say hi, Red spoke up.  
"Hi Blue."  
"Huh?" Blue looked at him blankly for a moment, before his eyes widened, "Red! How's Charmander? Have you checked on him to-"  
"Char!" Blue jumped before looking down at the fire type.  
"Hey Charmander! How're you feeling?"  
"Cha- Charman charman." Charmander repeated the so-so motion, although he did add a small thumbs up at the end.  
"Walking's definitely helped." Red said. "But it's about time he took a break."  
"Char! Cha Charmander!" Charmander stomped his foot and puffed out his chest.  
"Nurse's orders Charmander." Red said, "I don't want you getting hurt again, ok?" Charmander sighed, before slowly nodding and letting Red return him to his pokeball.  
"Not fully healed?"  
Red sighed, "The bandages should be able to come off tomorrow. Nurse Joy didn't say when he'd be battling fit again."  
"That sucks." Blue said.  
"Yea." The two fell silent, Red just following Blue's lead, before he asked. "What's around here? You know, places we can explore. Charmander would rather go walking so..."  
"I know a place!" Blue said, "You know that Bill guy Gramps sometimes consults?"  
Bill? "Do you mean the guy who figured out the pokemon transfer thing in the PC?"  
"Yea! Turns out he lives up on route 25. It's only an hour or two away." Blue grinned, "He showed me a bunch of really cool pokemon when I visited him a few days ago." Red could feel his smile growing to matching Blue's, "He said come back anytime. Wanna get some food and head up there?" Red nodded. He hadn't eaten much earlier, and he was more than happy to get something else to eat. The place Blue showed him had an outdoor area where pokemon were allowed, so Red and Blue sent out their starters so they could talk while the two boys ate. When they were done, the two boys and pokemon headed north.  
"Wow." Red said. "That is a golden bridge."  
"Yea. Apparently a few years ago someone paid to have it all redone. They host this marathon battle competition once a week where you have to fight your way to the end. Apparently if you win you get a gold nugget."  
"Really?" That was so much!"  
"That's what I heard." Blue said.  
It was really impressive how bright the bridge was. It wasn't real gold, it couldn't be, but whatever it was had to have been recently cleaned for it to stay this shiny. The bridge was about as wide as a gym field was long, and the only thing ‘wrong’ with it was some trash had been left and it had a few scrapes and parts where it had clearly been repaired. The entire thing was empty, and they didn't pass by anyone else the whole half hour walk.  
"So besides you know, almost getting mugged by Team Rocket, how was your trip through Mt. Moon."  
"We got lost."  
"How did you get lost?" Blue asked, "You just have to follow the lights."  
"We did! I don't know what happened." Red sighed, "And those stupid zubat were a nightmare."  
"I gave up and used a repel after the third time they confused Squirtle." Blue said, "Crazy bats."  
"We were using pokemon so we could see better."  
"I just had to put up with it. I get that they have a whole 'ooh spooky dark cave' thing going, but seriously, those lights barely did anything. I coulda walked right over a fossil and not even noticed!"  
The two of them complained about Mt. Moon for a little longer, before Red checked the time, "Charmander needs a rest."  
"Really already?" Blue said, "Good thing it's a good day out." Blue shrugged, before pointing up at a chunk of ground separated from them by a probably eight foot tall wall of earth. "Well how about we rest up there? There's a way up not far. Like two more minutes."  
Red shrugged. It had only been 40 minutes or so. He'd object if it was any farther, but this should be fine. As they walked, the wall next to them slowly started getting a little lower. After a couple minutes and a few feet, Blue grinned at Red, "Ok, let's go." He shrugged his pack off and tossed it up, before cracking his knuckles and jumping. Blue could barely grab the top, but bit by bit, he dragged himself up and over the ledge. "Toss up Squirtle for me!"  
"You call this a way up?" Red muttered to himself, before grabbing the water type and lifting him as high as he could. Blue grabbed him and set the turtle pokemon down, before asking for Charmander. Red complied, before tossing his own bag up.  
"If you can't make it Red I'll help you up." Blue taunted, and Red scowled. If Blue could do it so could he. So what if Blue was a little taller? Red jumped as high as he could and scrambled for a grip, but fell back down and almost lost his footing. Blue laughed, and Red glared. He could do it.   
Red took a couple steps back and ran forward. He slammed into the wall with enough force to let out a small "oof." but he held on. His arms burned a bit by the end, and Red had to use his feet to kick a little higher, but Red managed to push himself up enough to drag his body over the ledge. "I can handle it Blue. Thanks though." It was Blue's turn to scowl, and Red couldn't help but laugh.  
"Fine fine," Blue said, plopping down and laying back against his bag. “Definitely a better view up here huh?”  
Red looked back. Route 25 was a straight shot from west to east, and Red could see practically all of it thanks to those extra few feet of height. The water separating them from Cerulean was a deep blue, and Red could see at least a couple people swimming around in it. The path they had been walking on had been worn away until it was just dirt, but Red could see the bright green surrounding it. Red leaned back against his bag and smiled. "Yea."  
Charmander and Squirtle sat across from each other in between their trainers. Charmander was definitely breathing a little harder than he should have been, but he looked fine besides that. Red glanced at Blue and his smile slipped a bit. Uh oh. What did that smirk mean?  
"You mind if I let out the others?"  
"Others?" Plural?  
"Yea." Blue sat up and grabbed a pokeball, "Pidgeotto come on out!"  
"T-TO!"  
Pidgey evolved into Pidgeotto.  
Blue evolved a pokemon first.  
"You too Rattata!"  
"Rata!"  
And Blue had three pokemon.  
Red scowled, but stopped when he saw Blue holding a fourth pokeball. No way...  
"You caught two more pokemon?" Seriously?  
Blue shook his head like he'd been lost in thought, "Huh? Oh well, kinda. It's, well. Lemme just show you." Blue tossed the pokeball up-  
And there was nothing. Red looked at Blue in confusion, but Blue just scanned the area. "There she is." He said, pointing. Down by the coast, head sagging to the side, was an Abra.  
"You caught an Abra?"  
"She caught herself really." Blue said. "I was camping out up here and I woke up to a pokeball opening. She must've wandered into my tent and accidentally touched it."  
Oh. Red nodded. He could see why Blue would be a little unsure, "Are you gonna release her?"  
"That's the thing. I can't tell if she wants me to or not. Whenever I let her out, she hovered around near me. If I start walking, she follows, but she teleports away if I get closer. If she just ran off I would've released her when I got back to Cerulean, but she keeps staying just close enough that I'm not sure." Blue sighed and fell back onto his pack. "I think I'm gonna have to try and catch her. Like hold her down, catch her not- you know. That way she can't teleport away and I can try to ask what she wants. I'd love having an Abra. Alakazam are crazy strong. If she doesn't want to go with me though I don't wanna take her away and make her unhappy, or worse she runs off one day and gets lost somewhere she doesn't know."  
"Have you let her out in Cerulean?"  
"Yup." Blue popped his P. "I even went down to route 9. She warped around a few times before settling down, but that's it." Blue let out a laugh. "That's something I'll figure out soon though. Even if she doesn't want to stay, I can still tell you one thing."  
"What?"  
"I evolved a pokemon first."  
Red pushed him, before letting Nidoran out and watching the 5 pokemon talk and play a little.  
Abra didn't come any closer by the time the two of them decided to get walking again.  
~~~~~~  
It didn't take too much longer to reach the end of route 25. The farther they went the brighter the grass got, and after a while bushes and the occasional tree started sprouting up, making it a bit of a maze to walk even if it wasn't particularly hard. There were a few people wandering about, clearly enjoying the nice day. At one point a trainer challenged Red to a battle, and Charmander pouted the whole time Nidoran got to fight, which only got worse because after Red won the trainer swapped pokemon and Squirtle got a round too.  
Just before the route sloped up in a hill steep enough for stairs to be needed, there was a small cottage nestled with its back to the mountain.  
"That's the place." Blue said, jogging over. He waited for Red to catch up before slamming his fist into the door. "Hey Bill it's Blue! I was here the other day remember? Lemme in!" Red cringed. Blue always knocked like that no matter where they went.  
"Blue?" A voice came from the other side, "Oh Samuel's grandkid! Come in come in!" Blue grinned back at Red before opening the door.  
It felt like the entire first floor was just this one room, and a lot of the space was empty. Filing cabinets and boxes dotted the walls, and a desk with a computer was in the middle of the room. Blueprints littered the floor, and the back wall was dominated by two giant machines with a door on them and pipes connecting the two.  
The only living thing inside was clefairy, looking around idly.  
"Bill?" Blue called again. "Where are you?" The two boys went inside, looking around in confusion. After a moment, Red walked over to the clefairy.  
"Hey little guy. You know where Bill is?"  
"Yup!" Red staggered back, falling on his butt and still scrambling a little more. "I'm not really a pokemon! Oh come on what's with the look on your faces. I'm not joshing you."  
"Bill?" Blue finally spoke up, taking a couple steps forward.  
"Yup." The clefairy- Bill? said, "I screwed up an experiment and got combined with a pokemon. Can you two help me out here?"  
"What do you need?" Blue asked.  
"First off I need you two to find Rotom's pokeball! Little rascal messed it up and he's hiding up there instead of fixing it." Bill glared up at the machine on the right, where a pair of eyes appeared and a pokemon cry came out. "His pokeball's black and green you can't miss it!"  
Red and Blue looked at each other, before both of them shrugged and set their bags down. They scoured the room for what was probably close to 20 minutes, before Red finally found it in a cabinet off to the side, behind a stack of papers.  
"So that's where you hid it." Bill muttered, before speaking up, "Well, just return him." Red lifted up the strange pokeball, and pointed it at the machine. With a cry, an orange pokemon shot out, laughing to itself even as the pokeball caught it and returned it. "Great! With that out of the way, can one of you two lift me up? I wanna get a look and see if there's anything out of place still.  
"Sure." Blue said. It was a little awkward, but after a couple tries Blue was able to balance Bill on his shoulders so the pokemon could get a look.  
"Luckily Rotom wasn't that destructive." Bill said, "It should work just fine." Blue let him down, and Bill looked at them, "Now all that's left is to turn me back." He waddled over to the desk and did his best to type the computer password with stubby clefairy fingers, before pointing at the screen, "When I give the word, one of you needs to click this button, k?" Red nodded, and Bill walked over to one of the two machines. After it shut, Blue peered inside and gave Red a thumbs up. Red clicked the button, and the machine Bill went inside started glowing and making noise. It got louder and louder, before a light shot through the tubes connecting the machines and the other started beeping. It ended, and both doors opened. A clefairy in the right one immediately took off running through the back door, and a man in his 40s stumbled out of the other, off balance and doing his best to steady himself. After a moment, he looked down at his hands and grinned.  
"Yeah! Thanks you two! I owe you one."  
"It's no problem." Red said.  
"No no I insist! Oh~ Maybe these'll do!" Bill walked over to his desk and pulled out a couple of tickets that he handed to the two boys. "Tickets for the S.S. Anne. It takes off in about a month."  
"Wait, S.S. Anne as in the cruise ship?" Blue asked.  
"Yup!" Bill beamed. "I hear a bunch of trainers take trips there. They invited me to some fancy party, but I can't stand those fancy do's. Was trying to figure out how to get out of it anyway."  
"What do you think, Red? Beat Misty and take a cruise before we tackle Surge?" Red smiled. That sounded fun.  
"Stellar!" Bill said, "Now, what did bring you two up here? Did you want to take a look at my collection?"  
"Yea!" Blue said. "Red's Charmander's hurt, so he's taking a rest day. He wanted to check out all those cool pokemon!"  
"I'd love to show them to you!" Bill said, "First of all, you two have met Rotom." Bill took the pokeball from Red and glared at it, before putting it on the table, "I'll deal with him later. Porygon?"  
"Go-Ri!" The PC glowed, and a moment later a porygon just floated out of it and started bouncing around Bill.  
"I'm fine Porygon I'm fine." Bill laughed, "You got the data right?"  
"Gon!: The pokemon glared at him, clearly offended.  
"Right right, of course you did. I'll look it over later. For now, say hi to Blue and his friend..?"  
"Red." Red said softly.  
"Red!"  
"Po-ri-two! Ri-go!" Porygon floated over, bouncing between the two and flapping its legs. Red reached out and touched the normal type. It was cool and hard, and Red could faintly feel its insides moving. It let out a pleased hum.  
"Porygon here's my lab assistant. They run the machines and check my work. An acquaintance in Sinnoh sent me Rotom so I could compare them. Rotom likes causing trouble more than it likes helping with tests though. Honestly, I might need to give Porygon an upgrade just to keep up with him!"  
"You're a pretty one aren't you?" Red said, and he earned a pleased sound before porygon flew around him in a circle.  
"Porygon are really helpful in lab work, but they aren't the best for battling." Bill said before gesturing for the two of them to follow him. "Mine may not be a battler, but I know some people have crazy strong Ampharos. Come on, I'll show you him.  
Bill guided Red and Blue through the back door, and to Red’s surprise, it kept going past where the house should have ended. They went up a flight of stairs, and all of a sudden they were outside, in a little garden area that almost looked like it had been carved out of the rock that blocked it off from everything else. It was filled with pokemon, and Red recognized the eeveelutions even before the umbreon and espeon ran up to greet them. Red knelt down to give espeon a pet while Blue cuddled the umbreon, before-  
"Phan!" A dust cloud following a spinning pokemon flew his way. Red flinched, before another cry came and a giant metal tail slammed in the way, taking the hit with a loud thud before the steelix glared down at an elephant pokemon who was stumbling around with stars in its eyes. What was it called again? Fan-something?  
"Donphan no!" Bill yelled, "I know you're excited but you can't run people over! Got it?"  
"Don..." The donphan looked down, ashamed.  
"Sorry about him. He's as friendly as he was as a phanpy except now he's 4 times as heavy." Bill knelt down and picked up a pink poke- snubbull!- That one was a snubbull- who buried its face in his shoulder, "Snubbull here's just shy though."  
"Where'd you get all of them?"  
"I grew up in Johto." Bill said, "Did my journey there before settling down here in Cerulean. My umbreon got lonely and I got him a friend and well..." He gestured to the horde of evolution pokemon. "Ampharos isn't technically mine though." Bill said, pointing to a little cave built into the wall of the garden, where the light pokemon was laying down. "Her job's to light the lighthouse if anything goes wrong with it, so she needs to stay as close as possible.  
"Pharos!" She grumbled, turning to face the wall.  
"She's also bordering on nocturnal, so don't bug her for another few hours at least. She's got a nasty shock.  
Red and Blue played with Bill's pokemon for a few hours, even the little togepi who slowly peaked out after they'd been there for a while. Squirtle seemed to become fast friends with a marill, and once it stopped trying to run everything over, the donphan and Nidoran got along great. Pidgeotto roosted on Steelix's back, and the steel type didn't seem to know what to do about that, while Charmander slowly dragged snubbull out of its shell. Blue's new rattata seemed infatuated with a bellossom, much to everyone else's amusement.  
Abra teleported over near Ampharos, and even when the electric type joined everyone else, Abra stayed off to the side.  
~~~~~~  
"Charmander's doing a lot better." Nurse Joy said. "If he's feeling antsy, I think some light training would be fine, but no breath moves and nothing strenuous." Red nodded. Knowing Charmander, if Red gave him that much room he'd try and push it. Better to just be safe.  
"How long until..."  
"Until he's back in form?" Red nodded, "Another couple days I'd say." That wasn't too bad. At least Charmander didn't have to wear that bandage anymore. Red thanked Nurse Joy and headed outside. He sent both his pokemon out and fed them. Between the checkup and feeding his pokemon, he stalled long enough for Blue to stumble downstairs.  
"How is he?" Blue said. Red returned both his pokemon and sighed, "Light training only. It'll be better if he just rests another day."  
"Aw." Blue said, "So that means no Nugget Bridge?"  
"I doubt Nidoran can do the whole thing on his own." When they'd gotten back from Bill's Blue had asked around for a little more information on the Nugget Bridge. Apparently, the challenge was weekly, but each week they only did certain badge counts. This week happened to be the one for one badge trainers, and it would take a whole month for it to come back around.  
"Would you be mad if I still went and did it?"  
"No go ahead." Red sighed, "I'll come watch I guess." As they headed over for lunch, Blue looked like he was a weird mix of excited to try, and guilty for feeling excited. Red tried to tell him it was fine, and it helped, but even when they headed over to the Nugget Bridge there was still a little bit of hesitation. "I won't be mad if you beat it." Red said, "Deal?"  
Blue gave him a grin, "That's too easy. Even you could pull that one off Red."  
There were already quite a few people crowded around by the time Red and Blue made it, awkwardly shuffling about or chatting. Red could see the occasional flash of an attack overhead. As they got closer, Red could see someone at the end of the bridge, tablet in hand and, if Red had to guess, registering them for the challenge. Blue got in line to register, and Red stood next to him.  
"Welcome to the Nugget Bridge Challenge!" The man with the tablet said when they got close, "The goal is simple. There's a button on the other side of the bridge. Hit it before an hour is up, and you win a gold nugget. Five trainers will be trying to stop you, so don't think it'll be easy. Are you here to sign up?"  
"You bet!" Blue said. He'd already taken his trainer card out like he'd seen the person in front of them fumble around to grab. The man took Blue's card and looked at Red.  
"What about you? Do you want to take part."  
"Um, One of my pokemon got hurt." Red said softly, "I only have one that can battle."  
"That's the glory of the Nugget Bridge!" The man said, "Each trainer on it uses however many pokemon you do. If you think your pokemon is trained enough, one's all you need!"  
"Really? Red and Blue said at the same time, "So that means Red can try it?"  
"Of course! If he's willing that is." Red already had his trainer card out, a smile on his face.  
"Excellent!" The man finished Blue's registration and went on to Red's. When he put it into his tablet, his eyes narrowed, "Say kid, how'd your pokemon get injured?"  
"T-team rocket sir." Red said, "A golbat bit him."  
"I see." The man said, before handing Red his trainer card back. "Everything's in order. One person every half hour, so it'll be a bit of a wait. If you miss your name getting called its an automatic DQ ok? No redoes." Red and Blue nodded, before wandering over to join the other half dozen or so people waiting.  
"You get to give it a shot Red!" Blue slapped him on the back and grinned, "Now don't blow it. If you do I might have to stop calling you a rival." Red rolled his eyes, and sent out Nidoran.  
"Hey buddy." Red said, kneeling down, "We've got a challenge today."  
"Ran?"  
"Yea. It's an endurance race." Red pointed at Nugget Bridge. "We've gotta get all the way to the end in an hour."  
"Ran Ni?"  
"Yea. Problem is there's gonna be 5 trainers on the way. They're job is to stop us. Think you can handle it?"  
"Dorando?"  
"Charmander's not ready to fight. It's all on you." Nidoran's eyes widened. "It'll be fine Nidoran. You can do it."  
Red consoled Nidoran until the poison type seemed confident, before returning it. Red and Blue talked and wasted time, keeping a tally of how many people went past. By the time the sixth person did, Red and Blue were definitely fidgety. Blue should be next.  
"Blue Oak!"  
"Finally." Blue got up from where they'd been sitting in the grass. "Smell ya later Red. See you on the other side."  
That last half hour was definitely the longest. Not only was Blue not there to keep him busy, but Red knew he was next. By now, the sun was high in the sky, and the whole bridge seemed to glow between what light it reflected directly from the sun and everything it caught bouncing off the water.  
"Red Kiro." Finally. Red got up and dusted off his pants before adjusting his hat. He walked back over to where the man was waiting at the front of the bridge. He looked at Red and smiled, "You're the kid who's only using one right?" Red nodded, and the man grabbed the walkie talkie at his side. "Trainer A. Kiro. One." He said into it. "Now, before you start I need you to know. You aren't allowed to talk about the challenge with anyone who hasn't already taken it. Any tricks you figure out stay firmly in that head of yours." Red nodded, "Second: If you swap pokemon at any time, you're out. If another comes out for any reason, we DQ you right then." Red nodded. "Third: Don't expect a win. Most people don't make it halfway before their pokemon are too tired. The rest usually go too slow and run out of time. Do your best, but don't go pushing your pokemon too far." The man checked his tablet. "That covers it. Are you ready?" Red nodded. "You can start in..."  
"3"   
Red got into a running stance and adjusted his hat, staring down Nugget Bridge.  
"2"   
Red reached to his side and grabbed Nidoran's pokeball, holding it as tight as he could.  
"1!"  
Red took off running down the bridge. He’d done the math while he was waiting. If running the bridge took him 15 minutes, then Red had 9 minutes a trainer. If they only used one pokemon each that wasn't too bad. Red could take a pokemon down that fast.  
"Venonat!"  
"Nidoran." Red threw his pokeball as soon as he heard another voice.  
"Confusion!"  
"Dodge and peck." Nidoran jumped to the side and kept running closer. Confusion. He'd have to be careful. That could tire Nidoran out really early. The venonat didn't seem confident in its confusion, and the attacks were slow. Nidoran easily ran around them and slammed into the bug type. "Don't let up. Peck again."  
"Get back!"  
"Push." Nidoran kept hitting the venonat, pushing it farther back and towards the other trainer.  
"Supersonic!" Sound moves-  
"Hit it in the forehead." Nidoran slammed into the venonat just as the supersonic started, stunning the bug type long enough for another peck to finish it.  
"Let's go." Red said, returning his pokemon. It would take time to run. Nidoran's pokeball’s cooldown would end and he'd have more energy. Red faintly heard the trainer say something into their walkie talkie, but Red ignored it. It was probably the same alert that the guy in front said. How long had that taken?   
Red left at 12:30. It was 12:35. Good time.  
"Psyduck water gun!"  
"Nidoran tag double kick." Nidoran dodged the water gun and jumped over it when the psyduck turned its head to go for another run. Poison sting wouldn't be good here. He was on a time limit. He had to take it down fast.  
"Psyduck tail whip."  
"Ignore it and focus on speed." Nidoran was fast. Nidoran could apply pressure even without the risk of poison. Nidoran hesitated when Psyduck turned around, but he was going fast enough that he couldn't stop, and just slammed a peck into its rear. The psyduck fell over, and a double kick to the hea-  
"Don't hit its head." Psyduck headaches: bad. Red had seen what happens. Nidoran stumbled back at the surprising order, and psyduck had time to fire a water gun. Nidoran dodged it and had to run around for a minute before finding another opening. Once in, Nidoran took a scratch, but was still able to take out the psyduck. Return. Run.  
12:43  
"Swift"  
Red waited for the attack to disappear before throwing out Nidoran.  
"Peck. Double kick when you get the chance."  
Sandshrew were bulky. Still no time for poison. Red had to stomp out the part of him that wanted to order it anyway.  
"Sand attack!"  
"Close your eyes. Listen." Red couldn't see the two pokemon, but a moment later a pair of loud thuds made him take a step closer. Good.  
"Swift!"  
"To me." Nidoran ran away from the sandshrew, a storm of stars following. Sure hit move. block it. "Double kick as many as you can." He blocked half. Half hit." "Get back in close."  
"Swift again!"  
"Keep going." Red watched the stars slowly get closer to Nidoran. Closer. Closer. "Jump sandshrew."  
"What?" It worked. Two stars hit Nidoran, but most of them hit the sandshrew.   
"Double kick." Two solid hits. A peck followed. The sandshrew looked tired.  
"Defense curl!" That wasn't good.  
"Double kick. Keep going." Sandshrew wasn't fighting back. It was wasting time! Poison couldn't get in even if it would help. Nidoran bounced sandshrew around repeatedly. How long would this ta-  
"Nidoran save it!" Nidoran's latest hit had sent sandshrew towards the railing, and when it hit a piece of trash someone left, it started bouncing. Time slowed down as Nidoran rushed forward. The sandshrew unfurled, but it was airborne and helpless. Red ran forward as though he could make it in time, and he could see its trainer, a man in his late teens wearing a baseball hat, doing the same. They weren't gonna make it in time. Nidoran jumped to try and catch it, but he was too far away. Sandshrew fell over the railing.  
"Sandshrew!" Red and the trainer slammed into the railing at the same time. Red looked over just in time to hear a splash. "Return!" The trainer shoved a pokeball over the railing. Thank mew the beam was able to track and catch sandshrew. Both trainers stumbled back. Was it ok? Red waited anxiously as time ticked down. It hadn't been in there for too long. Hopefully it was all right. Please let the sandshrew be ok.  
The pokeball opened on its own. That was a good sign. Sandshrew looked around in a panic, soaking wet, but no worse than if a strong water gun got him.  
"Oh thank god." Its trainer said, falling back. "You had me worried sandshrew." Red let out a sigh of relief. The other trainer looked at him. "You could've run past you know." He could've what? Why would Red do that? If he'd gotten this guy's pokemon hurt- "Too bad. Sandshrew, let's go."  
"What?"  
"It can still fight. Scratch!" Nidoran barely dodged. Were they serious? Sandshrew fell in the river! Nidoran staggered back to dodge another scratch and Red scowled.  
"Double kick." Sandshrew was definitely tired now.  
"Sand attack!"  
"Close your eyes. Peck." A solid hit. Sandshrew staggered back. "Now. Double kick." The first missed, but the second hit. Sandshrew fell back.  
"Return." Red ran forward, but staggered at the look on the other trainers face.  
Why did, why did he look impressed with that?  
Focus. He'd tell someone later. Time?  
1:10. Ten minutes each.  
The next trainer was standing in the middle of the road with a smirk.  
"Nidoran."  
"Go."  
"Ran? RAN!" Fake Out. Meowth followed with a scratch. Nidoran took it as he ran.  
"Payday."  
"Dodge." Coins scattered by Red's feet. Meowth rarely used real ones. Ignore them. "Double kick."  
"Feints." Meowth was fast, and it peppered Nidoran with light attacks. Double kick hit hard, but rarely.  
"Peck." Caught them off guard. Meowth staggered back. "Double kick." Meowth fell back. It kept moving. "One more." It was done. Red almost slipped on a coin as he ran forward. Nidoran was tired. Really tired. Meowth and sandshrew drained it a lot.  
1:18. Twelve minutes to hit the button. Red could see it right there, behind the last trainer.  
"Ember."  
"Dodge. Pecks." Play it safe. The growlithe and Nidoran danced around each other.  
1:20  
"Bite it."  
"Threaten with poison."  
"Tough it out." Nidoran flinched, even as it managed to poison the growlithe. An ember followed, and Nidoran stumbled back. He winced when he moved. Burned.  
1:22  
"You can do it bud. Double kicks." They had to speed up. Growlithe's bites stalled Nidoran out, and the burn made him move less. Growlithe wasn't tired and could move faster. Nidoran was on the back foot.  
1:24  
"Hold." Red said. Nidoran froze.  
"Embers."  
"Dodge as close as you can." Nidoran barely leapt half its size at a time, slowly getting closer. Growlithe backed up.  
1:26  
"Now!" Red ordered. "Get in close and don't let it get past your horn.”  
Peck warded off a bite.   
Poison sting to the nose made it cough out an ember.   
Flame wheel made space.  
Double kick caught up and punished recovery.  
1:28  
"Double kick!"  
"Ember!"  
First kick slammed the growlithe's mouth shut. Second sent it back.  
Red started running.  
Don't get up.  
Don't get up.  
1:29  
Red reached for the button.  
"Lithe" Red turned his head to see Nidoran slam another hit into growlithe.  
Almost. There.  
Red's hand slammed down on the button and he lost his balance falling past it and breathing heavily.  
1:30  
"Talk about a photo finish." A man said, walking over to Red and grinning, "Usually when someone gets here there's at least 10 seconds to spare or they’re a minute late, but man, I didn't know if you'd do it or not. Red took another breath and pushed himself back to his feet. Nidoran was standing next to the growlithe, trembling slightly. Red made his way back over and dropped to his knees.  
"You did great buddy." Red said. He reached out to pet Nidoran, but stopped. He didn't want to bug the burn. Red had left his bag in the pokemon center too. He hadn't expected to be battling.  
"Took your time didn't you Red?" Red looked up to see Blue offering him a potion. Oh yea, Blue had put a few in his pockets just in case.  
"Thanks." Red murmured. "This might sting Nidoran. Ready? Now." Nidoran winced a bit, but it was half hearted. Nidoran was exhausted. "I'll get you treated as soon as I can, ok bud? Get a good rest." Red returned his pokemon and took the hand Red gave him. "How'd you do?" Blue grinned. He definitely won.  
"59 minutes 30 seconds and 58 milliseconds." He said, pulling a gold nugget out of his pocket. "Pidgeotto had to half drag me to the finish though." Red let out a weak laugh.  
"I was close." Blue nodded.  
"Let's see how close it was."  
Red took a few more breaths, before deciding he was ready to move again. Man, how could he walk all day fine but doing sprints still made his legs feel like they were actually ditto?  
"Like I said kid. Real nail biter." The man at the end seemed way too happy in Red's opinion. Then again, Red was covered in sweat, thirsty and just wanted to lay down, so he might have been biased. "Mr. Red Kiro, using a single pokemon had a time of." The man paused for effect, and even Blue gave him a glare. "59 minutes, 59 seconds and 72 milliseconds!"  
He won? His pokedex said it was 1:30 though.  
Oh. It clicked over before he checked it.  
He was tired.  
"Congratulations!" The man reached into a bag at his side and pulled out a nugget, holding it out to Red. Red gave a weak smile, before taking it. Wow, that was pretty heavy. Red bounced it in his hand a couple times absently.  
"Thank you."  
"No thank you." He said, "Man, if it wasn't for my boss saying we weren't looking I'd definitely offer you a position."  
"A position? For what?" Blue asked.  
"Oh don't worry about it." He said, waving them off. "Take the side path." The man pointed to a smaller bridge, not nearly as cared for, half underneath the Nugget Bridge. Red nodded, and the two started walking.  
"Man Red, what took you so long?" Blue asked, slapping his back.  
Oh.  
"Hang on." Red turned and made his way back towards the man, who had taken his position next to the button again. "Excuse me."  
"Yea?"  
"Did, did the third trainer call for pokemon aid?"  
"No? Why?" He didn't? But his, but-  
"His sandshrew fell in the river."  
"Wow really? That must've given you an easy win huh?" An easy wi- Did they not care? "Don't worry, we were gonna send someone down to collect hurt pokemon in five minutes. It can't have been that bad can it?"  
Red's hand tightened around the nugget in his hand. It felt cold.  
If that's how they acted about injured pokemon, Red was glad they didn't offer him whatever position they had.  
He wouldn't want it anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost called this chapter 'nuggets and wisdom' but that was too bad, even for me.  
> I hope you enjoy this chapter. I know I'm shuffling the order of things a bit, but if it wasn't for game mechanics, I doubt Blue would actually ambush you like he always does. At least, half the time he wouldn't. Things happen, trainers lock eyes.  
> Bonus points to anyone who knows why those pokemon are the ones Bill has behind his house.  
> If you're reading this, please consider leaving a comment and telling me what you think. I hope you all have a good day.
> 
> Next chapter: Early Tuesday the 16th


	8. One Shock After Another

"Charmander should be fine for training as long as it doesn't involve him getting hurt." Nurse Joy said, "No defensive training, or putting him out in the middle of the gym's pool. From the looks of it he'll be fighting fit tomorrow, ok?"  
Red nodded and took his pokemon back. Blue was waiting for him, bouncing slightly.  
"How is he?"  
"No battling, but we can train."  
"That's great." Blue smiled, "So does that mean you wanna check out the gym? It's pretty different from Brock's." Well yea, it was a water gym. Of course it would be different from a rock gym. It would probably have a few pools for purely aquatic pokemon and be a lot cleaner, if Red had to guess. He nodded, and the two of them walked to Cerulean Gym.  
Well... Red was technically right... It wasn't just a few pools dotted around though; The gym was practically two big pools with a walkway dividing them down the middle with a few arena’s space on either side of them and space on the side for stands. There were ropes splitting the pools into smaller arenas, and floating platforms served as a place for pokemon to stand. The pool on their left was definitely the more wild of the two, and other trainers with small, unevolved pokemon were staying on the right side where it was safe. Or maybe it was the other way around, who knew?  
"Shouldn't surprise us that the water type expert makes you fight her in the water huh?" Blue laughed. Red stilled.  
Fight her in the water.  
Red's starter was a fire type that was so fire focused some people still thought that its tail going out killed the pokemon and not the other way around.  
"Why does the Kanto Circuit hate people who start with a fire type?"  
Blue's laughing got louder. Red shoved him, before walking over to the right pool and finding a clear spot. Yea, Charmander would be on the sidelines today.  
"So I've been having Squirtle and Pidgeotto spar." Blue said, "Help Squirtle get used to fighting underwater, and Pidgeotto gets better at reacting when he pops up. Win win."  
"And the others?"  
"I've been working with Rattata to get him up to their level." Blue said. "Abra..." Red nodded.  
"Work together?" Red asked, "Charmander practices pegging Squirtle when he pops up? Nidoran helps Rattata?"  
"That works." Blue shrugged, "Pidgeotto can do laps and stuff. She's still getting used to her new form."  
"Come on out guys."  
"Let's go!"  
Five pokemon cried out at once, while the sixth just, vanished. Blue glanced around, before turning back to where they were. Red pretended he didn't see, instead turning to his own pokemon.  
"Hey guys. We're gonna be training with Blue today." Charmander started to beam, but Red cut it off early, "Charmander, you're just going to be trying to tag Squirtle. No moving around or dodging."  
"Cha?!"  
"Nurse Joy said you'd be ready to go tomorrow. Just one more day, k bud?"  
"Char..." Charmander sighed.  
"Nidoran, we'll be working with his Rattata. It's not at your level, so it'll be a light day ok?"  
"Ran!"  
Red smiled, "Thanks guys." He looked up and saw Blue talking to a woman in a swimsuit with the water drop shaped Cascade badge on the back. Squirtle was already in the pool, and he waved at Charmander before swimming to the edge so they could talk. Rattata was looking at Red and Nidoran idly, waiting for Blue to come back, while Pidgeotto had already started flying around the gym, taking random sharp turns, dives, and only occasionally flying close enough to smack something with a wing on accident. Blue came back, a poliwrath following him with a heavy pole that had a target on one side and a weight on the other.  
"This way Squirtle can get some target practice in without hitting Charmander." Blue explained as the poliwrath set the target down and walked away. Red nodded.  
"Charmander, stay a few feet to the right of it, ok?"  
"Char char." Charmander waved a hand, and got in position. Squirtle dove back in the water, and a moment later popped up, firing a water gun and diving down before an ember could reach him.  
"What's Rattata need to work on?"  
"He's just behind the others. He's getting quick attack, but we're not good at it yet." Red smiled.  
"Tag?"  
"That works."  
"You hear that Nidoran? Rattata's gonna be trying their best to tag you. If he comes from the front, give him a peck."  
"Ran."  
"You ready Rattata? Nidoran's fast, so we've gotta stay on our toes."  
"Tata." Rattata nodded, and a moment later the two were running around, bouncing between a couple of the bigger floating platforms. Rattata only tagged Nidoran once, but him and Blue were definitely working better together by the end.  
~~~~~~  
"Charmander's cleared for battle." Red smiled, and held up the pokeball. Blue grinned.  
"Great. You know what I've gotta do then don't you?" Blue reached to his side and grabbed a pokeball, "I challenge you to a battle Red." Red's smile almost turned feral. So what Blue's Pidgey evolved? Red could still take him.  
The two of them walked to the gym in silence. Nidoran couldn't fight Pidgeotto. It didn't have the range, and they didn't have any terrain for him to abuse. Besides, sending out Charmander against Squirtle wasn't the best idea. Rattata wasn't an issue for either, and Abra probably wouldn't be battling. Blue would probably send Pidgeotto out first. It hit harder and had a free win if Red started wrong. If he started Squirtle, Red could at least keep his distance and make Blue either choose to switch or whittle it down enough to make Nidoran's job easier. If he swapped he'd have to deal damage fast enough to stop Blue from switching for free.  
"You ready Red?" Red nodded. They took a part of the gym where it was a normal arena instead of the giant pools. They both grabbed a pokeball. A moment's pause-  
"Charmander."  
"Pidgeotto! Quick attack!"  
"Metal claw." Charmander's claw glowed and he barely swung it in time to clash with Pidgeotto. Charmander was pushed back, but Pidgeotto took the worst of it. "Ember."  
"Dodge!" Charmander was able to hit more often than not. Pidgeotto was faster, but it was also a bigger target and wasn't as agile as before. "Quick attack into gust!"  
"Brace for it." Pidgeotto blurred, and the attack hit Charmander from behind. "Now." Charmander launched an ember, and Pidgeotto instinctively canceled the gust to try and dodge. The ember almost went out, but the last bits of the gust were weak enough to catch instead, scorching the bird's back as it dove out of the way.  
"I get it I get it you can use gust against us! Quick attack!"  
"Metal claw." Again the two attacks clashed, and Charmander was sent back. Midair, he jerked his head and fired an ember at Pidgeotto to slam into her wing as she tried to right herself. Charmander slammed into the ground hard, but so did Pidgeotto.  
"Ember."  
"Quick attack." It was too late to get a metal claw out, and Pidgeotto skinned past the ember to send Charmander flying. Again, Charmander fired an ember instead of righting himself, and Pidgeotto chickened out of using gust at the last second.  
"Gust Pidgeotto! If you're strong enough it'll go out!"  
"Ji!"  
"Charmander smokescreen."  
"Gust to blow it away!"  
"Run towards her." Charmander ran forward, smoke pouring out of his mouth that he managed to let out with only a slight cough. The gust blew it away, and- "Ember." The last bits of it were enough to boost ember and do big damage. "Metal claw while she's grounded."  
"Get up!" The metal claw slammed into Pidgeotto, and the bird stilled.  
"Pidgeotto's unable to battle Blue." Red smiled as Blue scowled, returning his pokemon.  
"Fine. Bubble!" Squirtle appeared and immediately began firing bubbles into the air. They drifted around the battlefield, not getting close-  
"It's a trap. Ember Squirtle and pop them when you can."  
"Char!"  
"Hide and use them as a shield!"  
"Get closer so you can break through."  
"Water gun when he gets closer!"  
"Don't let it hit you." Red glared across the field at Blue. They always ended up like this! Blue looked across from him and shrugged, a smirk growing on his face nevertheless. "Circle around back." Charmander walked around Squirtle, occasionally firing embers to soak up the growing number of bubbles floating steadily up towards the ceiling.  
"Now!" Squirtle popped out of his shell and fired a water gun. Red ordered Charmander to dodge to the side, but Squirtle just used that to push Charmander further to the side until- "Full power! Finish him off!" Charmander was trapped between bubbles and the water gun. He weaved through them as best he could, and the rock tomb training certainly made it easier, but every time one skinned him it stung, and he had to constantly choose to take one of them to avoid the much more dangerous water gun coming his way."  
"Under."  
"Tackle!" Charmander dove under the water gun, and Squirtle closed in, slamming into him before grabbing the fire type and pushing Charmander into the last of the bubbles.  
"Der!" Charmander collapsed, and put a claw to the ground, growling enough to make Squirtle flinch, before slumping back down.  
"There goes your starter Red. Wanna give up now?"  
"Not a chance. Nidoran tag."  
"Ran!" The poison type dashed forward before Squirtle could set up any more bubble traps, slamming a poison sting into Squirtle's chest before dashing to the side. Squirtle staggered, but its shell took the blow well enough.  
"Aim for its arms."  
"Bubble!" The bubble slowed Nidoran down, but the poison type got past it. The poison sting came out, but Squirtle turned just enough to keep it from getting a strong hit. A water gun pushed Nidoran back, and bubbles surrounded the water type again. It was getting too thick for Nidoran to run through. The poison type slowed down, nervously pacing the edge.  
"Start popping them." Squirtle would get tired eventually. Before Nidoran at least. They could wait this out.  
"Enough Squirtle." The bubbles slowly started easing, and Red waited. They just needed a clear shot in...  
"Now."  
"What?" Blue watched a purple blur darting through the bubbles, "Squirtle now!"  
"Poison sting. Don't let it breath." The first strike bounced off Squirtle's armor, but the second nicked his leg and the third scratched his tail. Double kicks and pecks joined the poison stings as Nidoran knocked Squirtle around, putting pressure on the water type so he couldn't pop out.  
"Gotcha.” Blue said. “Squirtle!" Red looked at him, confused, before Squirtle started glowing white.  
"Nidoran get back!" Nidoran jumped back and turned to run, but the last of the bubbles made the poison type hesitate.  
"Bide!" Squirtle popped out of his shell and slammed into Nidoran's back. Nidoran let out a pained cry, and was launched straight through the bubbles he'd tried to avoid, straight past Red, and straight out of the arena, far enough for the auto return feature to pick him up before he slammed into a wall. Squirtle stood up, panting and banged up, but still able to battle.  
Red didn't need to check if Nidoran was.  
"Looks like Nidoran's out of it too isn't he Red?" Blue taunted.   
Red pulled his cap down and nodded. "Fine, you win. I didn't know Squirtle had bide."  
"Kinda the point of not telling you isn't it?" Blue said.  
"How?"  
"Brock gave me the TM. Said using Squirtle's shell for defense is good and all, but I need a plan for after. Thought about saving it, but..." Blue shrugged. "He give you one?"  
"Rock tomb."  
Blue laughed, "Well you did train with almost just that move in his gym." Blue said, "Can either of your pokemon even learn it?"  
"Charmander." Red said. "I don't know if I'll use it on him though."  
"Why not?"  
"They'll get in his way." Red said. "It's better for a slower pokemon isn't it?"  
"Yea probably." Blue said. "Let's head to the pokemon center."  
Red nodded, and the two of them started walking.  
"You've been busy here in Cerulean." Red said.  
"Yup." Blue popped the P. "One of the gym trainers has a cloyster who helped with bide, and I saw Misty use that bubble trick."  
"And Pidgeotto?"  
"Did you know Seaking can learn quick attack?" Blue asked, "Yea, it doesn't match up perfectly, but that gave us enough of a hand to figure that out. She just evolved a couple days before you got here. Started focusing on getting used to that."  
"Her gust is stronger."  
"Tell her that." Blue muttered, "I hope I can train her out of that fear of fire and gust. That fight would've gone a lot smoother if she didn't panic whenever you shot an ember."  
"She's smarter than you then." Red said, "Charmander'll outpower her eventually."  
"Watch it Red." Blue said, "If she's smarter than me what's that say about you? I just duped you after all. Wasn't even hard."  
"Well sorry I didn't have an easy gym then go straight to the experts of my starter's type." Red said, "I wasn't expecting you to jump that quick."  
"Just accept I'm better than you Red. Don't be like John."  
"Oh like you didn't moan when I beat you by Viridian." Red said, "I'll win the next one."  
"If I went and took a month off maybe." Red pushed him and Blue laughed. They made it to the pokemon center, and bickered while waiting in line. Nurse Joy smiled at the two of them, and hid a laugh when Blue 'oh so graciously' let Red go first "Because your pokemon are in so much worse off than mine." She took all of them at once anyway, and when she checked the reports her eyebrow raised.  
"Nidoran looks like he got hit by a gyarados. What happened?"  
"Bide." Blue said a little too smugly.  
"Ah." Nurse Joy said, "Well he'll be sore for the day no question. He can do some light training, but I'd recommend just letting him rest until tomorrow."  
Red nodded, and they took their pokemon back. The two started heading back towards the gym when Blue spoke up.  
"So, Squirtle's swimming and Pidgeotto's flying. How are you gonna handle Misty's gym?"  
"I... don't know." Red admitted. "Nidoran can't do anything if they don't come on land and Charmander..."  
"Is gonna be worse off than a sitting psyduck?"  
"At least they'd resist the attacks." Red said. "I might need to catch someone else for it."  
"Anything in mind?"  
Red shook his head.  
"Don't go with oddish unless you have a plan. She creamed some dude who thought that was all he'd need. Almost felt bad for him."  
"I'll look through the pokedex later. Is Rattata fighting?"  
"Probably not. Not unless I'm gonna shell out a couple hundred for a thunderbolt TM."  
"Thunderbolt TM..." Red's eyes widened, "Hey, do TM moves get passed down to kids?"  
"I... think... so?" Blue said. "Why?"  
"Cause Nidoran's dad knew thunderbolt."  
"Wait really? His dad was trained?"  
"Apparently." Red paused for a moment, "I don't think it would be enough though." Not with a fire type as his other pokemon.  
"And you'll need to figure out how to teach it too."  
"I can ask one of the gym trainers." Red said as they went back into the gym. "For now, can Charmander and Squirtle spar?"  
"Getting used to fighting water types? Sure, Squirtle can use the target practice. Besides, One of the gym trainers said he’s close to evolving. I wanna get there before I challenge Misty."  
"Then Charmander's gotta be close too." Red tossed the pokeball up. "You hear that buddy? Squirtle and Blue are trying to evolve soon. What do you say we beat them there?"  
"Mander!" The fire type cried, glaring over at Blue.  
"I guess it's a race then." Blue said, "Squirtle! Let's get to work!"  
"Tle!"  
"Mander charmander char char!"  
"Squirt? Squirtle tort stoise!" The two started locked eyes and stared for a moment, before Charmander ran over to one of the floating platforms and Squirtle dove into the water. A moment later, steam started rising as an ember and a water gun clashed. Blue laughed.  
"Well I think those two have everything nice and sorted." He said, "Think Nidoran has any more tips for Rattata?"  
"Probably." Red said, as the two purple pokemon were released, "No sparring, but he might have some advice." Red turned to his pokemon, "Think you can help Rattata again today? Just watch and see if there's something he can do better, ok?"  
"Ran." Nidoran nodded.  
"Well I guess we need something for him to aim at. Pidgeotto! Go do drills." I'm gonna ask to borrow a poliwag or something. Watch them for me?" Red nodded.  
~~~~~~  
"Ah Red!" Gramps smiled at Red, "How is Charmander?"  
"He's fighting fit." Red told him.  
"That's great to hear. I was terribly worried when your mother burst into my lab in a panic over it." Red winced. Mom hadn't exactly been happy with the news he’d met Team Rocket. Red had half expected her to have shown up in Cerulean and drag him home. Especially since she'd been the one to hang up. Maybe that was so she could talk to Gramps? "So what can I help you with?"  
"Well, um, Do TM moves pass on from parents?"  
"Oh? Well, yes, sometimes. It happens more with the male parent, but it's only ever guaranteed in the type of controlled setting professional breeders produce. Why?"  
"My Nidoran's dad knew thunderbolt."  
"Really? Oh that's interesting. Well, if you send his pokeball over we can run a few tests. It would only take a few minutes." Red nodded and put the pokeball in the machine. He put in his secret ID to authorize the transfer, and a moment later Gramps was handing a pokeball off to an aide with instructions. "I take it you want to learn thunderbolt by the time you fight Misty?" Red nodded. "Well, if that's the case I must warn you. Electric type attacks are dangerous to learn, especially for non electric pokemon. I'd recommend only training with it around someone experienced. I believe some of Misty's Starmie use thunderbolt at times. There is likely someone there who can teach you how to use it if you ask."  
"Ok gramps." Red nodded. That... didn't sound great. Still, Nidoran's biggest weakness at the moment was range. If Red could find someone to help deal with that, he'd definitely want to handle it.  
Also...  
"I was... also thinking about catching another pokemon."  
"Oh really? What did you have in mind?"  
"A magnemite?"  
"Magnemite?"  
Red nodded. He needed a water, grass, or electric type to help with this gym. Electric types had the best ranged options against a water type that was swimming. Elekid were cool, but electabuzz were too territorial for Red to go near their kids. Voltorb were in the same place, but angry at the best of times, Magnemite were fairly calm pokemon, not to mention steel would be a really helpful typing to have in the long run.  
"I see. When are you planning to catch one?"  
"I think I'll leave tomorrow." Red said. He'd been planning to learn how to start training thunderbolt first, but if it was dangerous... The aide came back and handed Gramps back Nidoran's pokeball, along with a paper. The professor read it and smiled, typing for a moment before Nidoran's pokeball reappeared next to Red.  
"Excellent news." Gramps said, "Nidoran has the ability to learn thunderbolt." Red smiled. Great, "He's also ready to evolve."  
"Really?"  
"Really. I'd imagine Charmander is close as well, although I'd have to see him to know for sure." Red sent the pokeball through and the professor laughed before asking an aide to handle it. "Do you want some advice?" Red nodded. Please. "Evolution is a fragile process. Anything can spook a pokemon enough to disturb them. A few trainers even send their pokemon back here so they can figure it out in peace." He laughed, "There are times when a pokemon will evolve in the middle of battle, but for the most part it takes place in a resting period. Perhaps you should keep him out of his pokeball." Red nodded.  
"Is there anything I should know?"  
"Naturally, pokemon need time to adjust to their bigger forms. Whenever you have a pokemon evolve, give them a day of rest before doing some of their old training again so they can catch back up to where they were." Red nodded. They talked a bit more and Red asked for a bit more advice, before the aide came back with the report and Charmander's pokeball. Gramps sent Charmander back, and confirmed that he was close to evolving, if a little slowed down by his break. Red smiled. Charmander would probably be working double time to catch up now that they knew he was a bit behind Squirtle. Red thanked Gramps, and they talked for a little bit longer before Red hung up. He got away from the computer, and a man in his thirties got up to go and use it. Red meanwhile, headed upstairs. Him and Blue were sharing a room at the pokemon center, and last Red checked, Blue was in the shower after falling in one of the gym’s pools earlier.  
Blue may have caught a third pokemon first, but a magnemite was certainly going to be more impressive than a rattata. Unless Blue got Abra to join him for real, that win would go to Red.  
~~~~~~  
Blue decided to stay in Cerulean while Red went pokemon hunting. Blue wanted the time to get used to water battles, and he said that he'd be getting an answer out of Abra one way or the other. So Red had to do it with just his pokemon. The path to route 9 was blocked by a group of bellsprout pretending to be trees, and they cleared out pretty quick once a fire type got close enough for them to realize Red saw through their disguise. As usual, Nidoran decided to stay close to Red's side, while Charmander ran up ahead, looking around and acting like a flaming yoyo with how often Red had to call him back after he wandered too far.  
The first few minutes of walking were plain. The grass at their feet slowly transitioned into rock and dirt and cliffs started rising on either side of them until the whole route was sandwiched between them. The ground beneath him started rising too, and Red could see up ahead what looked like a small mountain. He could just go around that, that wasn't an issue.  
"Hey, I haven't seen you around before!" Red looked up and saw a girl on one of the cliffs next to him. She waved down and said, "Just a sec!" Before swinging herself over the edge and climbing down so fast Red wondered how she didn't slip and fall. She pushed off a few feet up and landed in front of Red, dusting her hands off (not that it got rid of all that much of the dirt) and smiled at Red. Now that she was closer, Red could see she was maybe a couple years older than him. She had long purple hair she'd forced into a ponytail and tucked into a light green hat that matched her shorts and shirt. "Are you new in Cerulean? Those your parent's pokemon?"  
"I, um, I'm their trainer. I'm taking the, taking the gym challenge."  
"Wow really? You've got a trainers license at your age?" She said, "That's pretty impressive. I've just got a care permit. I'm allowed to watch some of my mom's, but they aren't mine." Red just nodded. "So what brings you here?"  
"I'm, um, heading to the power plant."  
"Oh you're one of those ones huh?" She said, "Yea, a bunch of trainers do that. If you want, I can help show you through route 9. It's a bit of a maze." Red nodded slowly. If she wanted to help him through, that was... fine? "Great! My name’s Alicia by the way. I've been exploring route 9 since I was 6, so don't worry about getting lost."  
"Red." Red said softly.  
"Huh?"  
"My name." And the color of his cheeks apparently.  
"Oh! Well nice to meet you Red." Alicia grinned. "Come on."   
"Cha!" Charmander let out a happy sound and immediately took off in the direction Alicia gestured.  
"Well he's an energetic one." She said, "I've never seen a Charmander before. My big bro swears he saw a charmeleon when he was younger, but I don't believe it."  
"They live in the mountains."  
"Wait really? So that wasn't just a load of tauros dung?"  
"High. High up the mountains."  
"So it was?" Red shrugged. How was he supposed to know? Red glanced at his own Charmander and saw him looking over a ledge.  
"Charmander."  
"That's not even the way we're going silly." Alicia said, and both Red and his pokemon looked at her. That was the only way, wasn't it? "If you try to follow the main path it’ll take forever to get to route 10. You don't mind a bit of climbing do you?" Alicia pointed her thumb at the mini mountain Red had actively decided to walk around. "There's a ledge a couple feet up. It's small, but plenty wide for us to walk around it without going all the way down just to climb back up."  
Was she serious?  
Judging by how she grabbed on and clambered up like a mankey on its first sugar high, yes. Yes she was.  
"Shouldn't we just go around?" That didn't look safe.  
"It's fine trust me." Alicia said, "Us Cerulean kids have been playing here since before I was born!"  
"Char!" Charmander nodded, before taking a running start and latching onto the wall with a metal claw. He hung there for a moment, before grabbing a little outcropping and pulling himself up. Another metal claw to make a new handhold, and he kept going.  
Huh... Charmander could climb. Well, if they lived in mountains that might be helpful. They wouldn't stay in the nest forever after all.  
"See? Charmander's with me!"  
"Nidoran?" Red looked at the poison type, who gave him a blank stare. "I know you can't climb up there bud." Red said with a laugh, "I'm asking if you wanna walk up there or just sit in your pokeball. Nidoran thought for a moment, and in that time Charmander made his way to the same ledge as Alicia.  
"Ran." Nidoran sighed, walking over to the cliff face. Red looked at it. On second thought...  
"I'm just gonna return you and let you out again when I'm up there." Red said. Otherwise he'd have to throw the poison type up to Alicia and that seemed like a million bad ideas rolled into one. Nidoran nodded, and Red put him away, before looking up.  
His climb wasn't nearly as fast as Alicia's nor as glamorous. He took it slow and steady and absolutely used a couple of the holes Charmander made. Alicia helped tug him up the last foot, and Red held the wall until he was sure his balance was sound.  
"That's the way around." Alicia said, pointing. It was a freaking maze! Rocks and ledges split the path up so much Red couldn't tell what was the right way and what was just a detour! He saw a few people down there, mostly kids, but at least one confused adult. Alicia spotted them too, and yelled down a few directions that they seemed to appreciate. "You can see why this is faster huh?" Red nodded.  
Once Red got over his apprehension, the trip was honestly pretty fun. Nidoran disagreed and took one look before changing his mind and practically begging to go back in his pokeball, but Charmander happily trotted along without a care in the world. Well, he had been on bedrest for days. He earned this much at least. The trio walked their little ledge until the ground rose up to meet it, and Alicia showed Red a spot that looked like a plain wall, if thin compared to the two mountains by it, but once you climbed up a bit revealed a crack that let them slide through without any issues. Charmander spent the time Alicia was helping Red exploring the little mini cave (barely a few feet around) inside, and it was thanks to his tail that Alicia found out where one of her friends had been hiding all those goodies she had out here.  
"And just down that ledge is Route 10." Alicia said, dusting off her hands as she landed from the cliff Red was still struggling down. "It's only another few minutes, and there's a pokemon center there." Alicia looked up at the sun, "I've gotta get home though."  
"Is the way back that much faster?" Red asked. It was already past four according to the pokedex. There was no way she’d be back in time.  
"Nope." Alicia smiled, "I just showed you the easy way." That was the easy way?! "Nice to meet you Red. Good luck down by the power plant."  
"Um, you too." Red said with a small smile. Alicia waved, before bouncing her way back up that cliff and up the next one. She slid down the peak and vanished from sight. Red watched for another moment or two, before turning and heading the way she'd told him to. Charmander had gotten tired and went back into his pokeball an hour or so ago (What did he expect when he was climbing up and down everything whenever he wasn't tapping impatiently for Red to hurry up?) Red hopped down the ledge and sent out Nidoran, who was perfectly happy traveling the last part of the journey now that ledges a hundred times his height weren't involved.  
"Veler?! Grav!" A huge thud echoed, followed by the sound of something rolling, and Red looked towards where the graveler cries had come from. What in the world had done that? Nidoran took a step forward, his ears twitching in time with steps Red couldn't hear. How far was it?  
"Chop!" Really close, apparently. It was a machop, and it made its way past a steep cliff blocking Red’s view with a proud smile on its face. Then it saw Red and Nidoran and its eyes narrowed. "Chop chop! Ma!"  
"We don't want any trouble." Red said, and the machop shook its head.  
"Chop chop! Ma!" It put its fists up and bounced in place a bit.  
"You want to spar?"  
"Chop!" Machop nodded. Red looked down at Nidoran. Well, the pokemon center was right there...  
"Nidoran, let's go."  
"Chop?" Machop seemed a bit confused as Nidoran listened to Red.  
"I'm his trainer." Red said, "We work together. Is that fine?"  
"Chop!" Machop didn't open his fist, but he did do a 'come at me' gesture.  
"Let's go then Nidoran. Pecks."  
"Ran!" Nidoran dashed forward, and the machop got ready to throw a punch only to be blindsided when Nidoran instead jerked to the side, running around to score a blow to its side. Machop recovered and tried to counter, but Nidoran was already gone. Machop was able to follow Nidoran better now that it was ready for it, and Nidoran was hesitant to get close enough for either to hit. What to do...  
"Over."  
"Chop?"  
"Ran!" Nidoran jumped machop and used a double kick to get over its guard, before dodging out of range again. Machop looked at Red for a moment, but Nidoran didn't use it. Machop turned, and the battle resumed. Red would spot an opening, and Nidoran would exploit it. Machop would fix his stance, and they'd repeat. Machop landed a few good hits, but for the most part Nidoran whittled it down until it fell to a knee.  
"Good job Nidoran." Red said, and the poison type ran over to his side. Red walked over to the machop and knelt down, rummaging through his bag. "Hang on a sec..." Red pulled out his oran berries and potion. "Here." Red offered the berries and held up the potion, "This'll make you feel better. Do you want me to use it?"  
Machop looked at him, before nodding, tossing an oran berry in its mouth and rolling a shoulder. The fighting type didn't flinch at the sting, but he seemed surprised at how quick the injuries faded.  
"That was a good fight." Red smiled, "Thanks." Red put his stuff away and got up, waving to the fighting type before walking the rest of the way to the pokemon center. Nidoran followed at his side, and it didn't take long for Nurse Joy to check on his pokemon and for Red to get a room, take a nice long shower, and collapse into a bed. As fun as mountain climbing was, Red didn't think he'd want to do it every day like Alicia said she did.  
~~~~~~  
Red woke up aching and sore. He didn't even move for a few minutes as he processed how exhausted his arms were. He hadn't realized how much work he'd done the day before, but he had to drag himself through a shower and downstairs. He sent out his pokemon to eat, and Charmander practically fell forward and moaned. Nidoran laughed a bit at his self-caused suffering, but Red just gave his starter a pet before taking him to Nurse Joy so she could help. Charmander was still rubbing his shoulders, but he was well enough that the three of them ate and headed out, not without a warning from Nurse Joy to ignore any pokeballs he found at the power plant, and to not go more than a few rooms in, and to leave immediately if it started raining. Apparently a strong pokemon sometimes stopped by, and it was dangerous. "It's normally only an issue in late fall and winter though, so you should be fine." Red nodded, and the three left the pokemon center. At least the soreness was going away.  
"Chop!" Again? Red turned and saw a machop, the same one if he had to guess, standing next to a battered rock not that far away. It caught his eye and ran over, "Chop chop ma!" It cried, bouncing in its little fighting stance again.  
"You want to spar again?"  
"Chop!" It said, pointing at Charmander.  
"You up for it buddy?"  
"Char!" Charmander, despite his discomfort, wasted no time stepping forward. He'd found out Squirtle was ahead after all, why would he let a little aching slow him down?  
"Ok, let's go Charmander!"  
"Chop chop!" The machop said, before running forward.  
"Ember." The blast of fire made machop bounce to the side, and though it seemed surprised by the fire type attack, it adapted quickly, dodging another one even if it took two first. "Metal claw to block." Machop's thrown haymaker was blocked by a claw harder than it was expecting, and it wasn't prepared to block the next one either. Charmander dragged his claws against each other with a grating sound. "Take it easy Charmander. We're not trying to hurt it."  
"Char!"  
"Chop?" Machop looked at Charmander's claws and its eyes widened. Yea, they were even sharper now. "Chop." It nodded, before going into approach again. It took three embers for the trouble and landed a blow on Charmander in exchange for the metal claw that sent it flying. When it struggled back to its feet, Red once again went forward and helped treat its injuries.  
"Thanks for helping us warm up." Red said, "We're heading down to the power plant, and thanks to you, I know we're ready." Red smiled at the fighting type, who looked at him quizzically, but Red didn't have time to think about it. He called his pokemon over to him, and they headed south.  
There was a gate separating the power plant from the rest of northern route 10. Nurse Joy had said that as long as he closed it behind him it was fine to go through. It was meant to keep people from wandering in on accident more than anything. Red did as he was told, and walked alongside a plateau that jutted out of the mountain and kept the power plant out of sight. It wasn't long until Red could hear the quiet, but steadily increasing hum of electricity. Red tensed a bit. He couldn't help it, especially when it got strong enough for the hairs on his arms to start standing upright. There were... a lot of electric types in here huh? It was different knowing in his head that there were electabuzz colonies and hordes of pikachu and a whole bunch of voltorbs- like the one that probably made that crater right there- and actually feeling it. Red couldn't help but wonder if this was a good idea, but honestly, it was too late at this point.  
The first pokemon Red saw was a pichu who promptly bolted as soon as it noticed Red was there, a second Red hadn't even spotted running after it. Red watched them leave before he started moving again. It wasn't long before the power plant itself came into view.  
It was massive, bigger than any other building Red had ever seen. It looked to be a few stories tall, and Red could see the three smokestacks on top of it. If he squinted, Red could swear he saw magnemite and magneton stuck to it, but he might have been imagining it. They walked around the holes left by voltorb explosions, some with pokemon still unconscious inside them, and made their way to the large opening where a door should have been but had long since been removed.  
"You ready guys?" Red said, adjusting his hat.  
"Char!"  
"Ran." Nidoran sounded ready, but begrudging. Exactly like Red. Hopefully he found a magnemite fast and could get out of here. Preferably before an electabuzz or a raichu took offense to his presence.  
"If you guys see a magnemite let me know, ok?"  
The inside was... almost exactly what you'd expect. Old, partially rusted machines filled parts of the room, and voltorb craters in the ground were filled with rubble from the voltorb craters that had happened on higher floors. Red saw a pokeball and walked right past, hoping that if it was a voltorb that it didn't wake up.  
Red wound his way through the second room. Why was the next doorway offset from this one? wouldn't that just slow everyone down? Red tried to focus on that instead of the tingling in the back of his neck as he walked.  
In the third room, there was a door on the right, but it was blocked off by enough rubble that Red probably could have gone to the second story. He didn't want to in the slightest, and the purple sludge oozing down the pile made Red give it a wider berth than he probably needed to as he made his way into the fourth room.  
Electricity sparked above them, and Charmander reflexively fired an ember at the source. He went wide and it splashed harmlessly against the concrete ceiling. The pikachu that caused it laughed at the startled fire type, before running off. A part of Charmander looked willing to go after him, but it was quickly outvoted, overruled, and kicked out.  
"Careful buddy." Red said. "All we need is a magnemite." And hopefully the first one they found was also one that wanted a trainer.   
Red went into the next room, and the way forward was blocked by rubble. They could have taken a right, but Red decided to listen to Nurse Joy's advice and turn back now. No getting lost in the power plant for him thank you! They went past the pile of rubble and wound their way back through the weird offsets. The 'pokeball' was gone, and Red was glad he hadn't tried to mess with it. He'd camp out a half hour away and try again in a couple hours. Hopefully that would-  
"Ran!" Nidoran jumped and set off Red and Charmander. An ember went flying, a girlish scream would never be mentioned, and all three of them were facing a magnemite, floating there and looking at the scorch mark on the wall that Charmander caused, before turning back to them. They looked at each other in silence for a moment, before Red awkwardly said-  
"Um... hi?"  
"Magnemite." It said back. Then it drifted closer. It scrunched its face up, and Red reached down to grip his pokedex to stop it from flying up and out of his pocket.  
"Hey!" Red snapped "That's mine." The magnemite looked at him, and the pull lessened. Red pulled the pokedex close to his chest and flipped it open, "I can show you it if you want." The magnemite's response was to float over to hover at Red's shoulder, which he took as a sign to turn it on. Luckily it was better at surviving magnets than staying in his pocket. "It has data on all kinds of pokemon in the whole region." Red said, "Even magnemite." Red hit a few buttons, and the scanner turned on. The magnemite flew back a bit, before moving even closer, especially when a picture of a magnemite showed up. Red clicked a button and data popped up next to it. "It can even figure out what you can do. You know how to use... "Red clicked a button, "Thundershock, thunderwave, metal sound and supersonic, don't you?"  
"Magnemite?" It tilted to the side.  
"Er." How did he say it, "You can shock things, stun them, confuse them and make a loud noise can't you?"  
"Magnemite!" It's magnets spun around, and it got even closer to the pokedex.  
"Yea, it's pretty cool." Red said, I don't know how it works. My grandpa invented them though." The magnemite looked at the pokedex for another moment, before suddenly diving down to poke at the pokeballs at Red's side.  
And promptly got itself sucked into one. It broke open almost immediately, and the magnemite let out a startled cry, every part spinning and sparking.  
"It's ok. It's ok." Red said, taking one of the halves of the pokeball for the magnemite to look at, "This is called a pokeball. It can hold a pokemon inside for safe keeping. Nidoran?"  
"Ran!"  
"Return." Red said, poking the right pokeball. Nidoran vanished, and the magnemite started floating around the pokeball. "It takes a little while to recharge, but after that I can send Nidoran out whenever and wherever I want."  
"Mite! Magnemite!" Magnemite buzzed.  
"I know, it's pretty nifty." Red smiled. Now that the scare was over this wasn't too bad. Red wracked his brain. Magnemite... they stayed in groups, but they didn't hold much of a connection. They'd swap fairly easily if you pulled one away and put it with a new group. "There's all kinds of fancy tech like this out there." Red tried, "I don't know how it all works, but my gramps does."  
"Magnemite!"  
"If you want, I can ask him to explain it."  
"Mite!"  
"And in return, would you let me catch you?"  
"Mite?" Red clicked the button, and Nidoran reappeared. Magnemite ran over, looking the nervous poison type over until a double kick made him back up, before he floated over to look at Nidoran’s pokeball in Red's hand.  
"We're trying to become really strong." Red said, "We could really use your help. I could ask Gramps to explain all kinds of tech to you if you agreed to help. Deal?"  
"Mite!" Its entire body bobbed up and down. Red smiled and grabbed a pokeball.  
"Then I'll have to catch you." Red explained, "I'll let you out once it's done, but you have to stay in here for a minute, ok?" Magnemite bobbed, and Red tapped it with the pokeball. There was a flash, and the steel type disappeared. "Well that went well." Red said, "Let's get out of here." While the pokeball processed Magnemite, Red made his way out of the power plant. When the pokeball was done, Red popped it open, and Magnemite came out.  
"Mite!" It said, "Magne mag-mite!" It looked at the pokeball in Red's hand and started inspecting it.  
"You can hold it if you want." Red said, "You just have to be careful and give it back after, ok?" Pokeballs were safety tested so much Red doubted an army of magnemite could cause a problem it wasn't prepared for. The magnet pokemon carefully floated the pokeball up and was absolutely enamored with the devise.  
Up until they accidentally touched it and returned himself. Charmander caught the pokeball and gave it back to Red as they laughed. "Guess they'll have to learn to be careful about that huh?"  
"Char!"  
"Ran!"  
"Chop!" Huh? They'd made it back to the gate while Magnemite was examining its pokeball, and standing on the other side, arms crossed, was that machop.  
"Hey buddy." Red said, "What are you doing over here? You want to spar?" Red opened the gate and slid outside, and the fighting type pointed at him.  
"Ma ma! Chop ma!" It pointed at Red.  
"I'm not sure what you're asking." Red said. At that moment, Magnemite popped out of its pokeball, blinking and looking wildly around. Machop jumped and looked wildly between Red and his newest catch. "I just caught them."  
"Chop!" Machop pointed at Magnemite, then itself.  
"Do... you want me to catch you too?"  
"Chop!" Machop nodded. It did its little fighting dance and put a hand out, then pointed at Charmander and Nidoran and lifted the hand.  
"They're stronger?" Nod, "You want to get stronger too?"  
"Chop!" It nodded.  
Red didn't know what to say. "I- I wasn't planning on catching anyone els-"  
"Chop! Machop!" Machop crossed its arms and stood firm in Red's way.  
"You're... not going to let me leave if I don't catch you are you?"  
"Chop chop." It shook its head.  
"Well, I guess I should have the money to take care of you..." Red said, reaching to his side and grabbing another pokeball. Machop jumped up and smacked it as soon as Red said how it worked, never mind what it did.  
"Did- did I just get bullied into catching a machop?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, I'm actually going to bed at a decent time tonight!
> 
> I know route 9 is normally blocked by a cut tree, but would they really let the east side of town just get blocked off like that? Especially since Let's Go says children like to play there? I imagine that cut trees are grass types causing problems, and that the ongoing Oddish War scared Surge far more than the one he fought in.
> 
> If you're reading this, please tell me what you think. Good or bad, I want to know how to improve. I hope you all have a great day.
> 
> Next Chapter: Early Tuesday the 23rd.


	9. Leveling Up

Red was woken up the next morning by the sound and bright light of a pokeball opening. Red blearily looked up, only to get the wind knocked out of him by Machop landing on his gut.  
"Ma ma chop ma!" Red tried to catch his breath, and apparently took too long, because the fighting type stomped down again. Red pushed him to the side and rolled over to protect his stomach from another attack. Machop was at least patient enough for Red's brain to catch up to his now-awake body, and Red glanced at the clock.  
4:30 in the morning.  
"Why are you awake?"  
"Ma chop ma!" Machop threw a few punches in place, and it took Red a second to process what it meant.  
"Training?"  
"Chop!"  
Red stared at him for a moment, before sighing. "We normally don't train this early."  
"Chop?! Ma chop ma champ choke?" Red was too tired to try and translate it.  
"We can do some light training, but we'll be walking all day today." Machop looked confused, and Red slid out of bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "You can warm up while I get ready, right?"  
"Chop?"  
"Warm ups." Red said. At the blank look Machop gave him, Red raised a brow, "Do you not know any warmups?"  
"Chop chop." Machop shook his head.  
Red ran a hand over his face and took a breath. Machop were a lot like humans, so those warmups would be best right? "Ok, I'll show you a few of them." Red said. "Let's just start with... jumping jacks. That works." Red showed the fighting type how to do it, and even though Machop looked confused, he did as Red told him while the trainer got dressed. Red showed him a few stretches too, and by the time they were done with that Red was awake enough to follow the overly energetic fighting type outside.  
"What do you normally do in the morning?" Red asked. If Machop had a routine, Red could just add or adjust it instead of making one up from scra-  
"Chop!" Machop had looked around, and, upon not finding anything heavy enough, apparently decided that Red would do.  
“Hey! Put me down!” The fighting type was able to handle Red’s flailing surprisingly well, and started doing squats with the 10 year old over his head. He actually got a couple dozen in before Red was finally able to jerk hard enough to knock him off his feet and scramble up himself.  
"Ok, rule one: Don't pick me up like that." Red paused. "Actually, that's rule two. Rule one is not to wake me up at dawn. Do you have any workouts that don't need you to pick something up?" Gyms would probably have something right? They could do that when they were there.  
Machop nodded, and Red followed the fighting type towards the cliff overlooking the pokemon center. Machop got right up next to it.  
And punched it hard enough to crack. Red couldn't help but jump. Well, there weren't exactly punching bags out here were there? He had to find something for that too apparently. Machop was looking like he’d be a lot more work than Red expected.  
"Magnemite?!" A flash of light revealed Magnemite, who looked around wildly for the source of the loud noise, before a second punch helped him find out that it was in fact, Machop doing it.  
"Machop is used to training early." Red said, "That's what we're doing."  
"Mite?" Magnemite tilted to the side a bit.  
"It's how we get stronger. He's just a bit... eager, I guess."  
"Magnemite." Magnemite twirled its magnets, before floating over to the wall and smacking it with one of them. Red couldn't help but laugh a bit.  
"Everyone has to train differently." Red said, "Do you want to train too?"  
"Mite!"  
Guess he's curious. "Well..." Red looked around for a moment, before spotting an old dented can lying on the ground. He picked it up and set it down a few yards away, before going back to Magnemite. "Try to hit that with thundershock."  
"Mite?"  
"Shock it." Red simplified. Magnemite made a noise of acknowledgment, before firing off a thundershock that went so wide Machop nearly got hit.  
"Ok, we'll have to work on that." Red muttered. That was about as accurate as a discharge, but it didn't have the numbers to make up for it. "Try to hold a thundershock right here." Red pointed to right in front of Magnemite's eye, before taking a few steps back, "Then try to push it forward." This time it was a few feet wide, but it was actually in the right direction. That was progress.  
Red trained with the two of them for another hour or two, before he let out Nidoran and Charmander. Nidoran seemed a bit surprised to see Red and his new pokemon training, but Red just told him Machop wanted to train early, before pulling them all together to eat.  
~~~~~~  
Red decided to head back to Cerulean along the path. Partly because he was still sore from all that climbing, partly because he didn't want to get lost, and mostly because he wanted to take the trip with his pokemon. Charmander could climb it, and Magnemite could float, but Machop might not be able to and Nidoran certainly wouldn't. He might take a shortcut or two just to make sure he didn't end up out here all night, but beyond that? He was in no rush.  
"Let's go guys." Red adjusted his hat and started walking. Charmander, as usual, ran up ahead, and Magnemite floated over next to him, buzzing and whirring questions to the fire type that Red's starter seemed mostly happy to answer. An ember was a warning that Magnemite received loud and clear, but that was the only issue Red saw.  
Machop meanwhile, walked by Red's side, opposite Nidoran. He seemed restless, bouncing in place and looking between Red and the other pokemon. Red waited for him to ease up, but after a half hour with no improvement Red took a water bottle from his bag and used it as a ball so Machop could do ‘running drills’, sprinting out whenever Red tossed the bottle and bringing it back. (It was just fetch, but Machop probably wouldn’t appreciate it if Red told him that). After a few minutes Machop begged Red's bag off of him, and despite how much more awkward it was for the fighting type to carry, he seemed to appreciate having the weight.  
"How are you feeling Nidoran?" Red asked after a particularly hard throw sent Machop climbing up a small cliff to grab the bottle.  
"Ran. Ran Ni." Nidoran waved his head side to side in his closest copy of a so-so motion.  
"You don't mind Machop joining us do you? I know you guys were fine with Magnemite, but Machop kinda snuck up on all of us."  
Nidoran shrugged. Machop came back and handed Red the bottle, before pointing at Nidoran and doing his boxing stance. Red rolled his eyes.  
"We can't train all day every day Machop." Machop looked at him like he was crazy. Red smiled. "Fine. Nidoran? What do you say? Do you mind having a quick spar?"  
"Ran!" Nidoran ran a few feet away, before turning and aiming his horn at Machop.  
"That's a yes then." Red said, "Machop, give me my bag." Machop was almost surprisingly willing to let it go. Maybe because he knew Nidoran was stronger? "Nidoran, I'm gonna command Machop for this, ok?"  
"Ran?"  
"We haven't battled before, so we need to get used to it. As long as you don't try to poison him, anything's fine. That ok?"  
Nidoran paused for a moment, before nodding and jogging a distance away from them. "Ran!"  
"You ready Machop?"  
"Chop!"  
"Focus energy." Machop took a breath, and Red could see Nidoran do the same across from them. Red waited for a moment, and Nidoran bolted to the side to circle Machop. "Hold." Nidoran feinted, and Machop twitched. "Karate chop." Nidoran jerked left, and barely avoided a blow from Machop. Machop was slightly off balance, and Nidoran slammed into him with a peck before backing off.  
"You ok bud?" Machop got back up and nodded. Nidoran looked at the two of them for a moment, before he came in with another double kick. Machop rolled to his feet, and a peck slammed into him before Red could even get a warning out. He staggered, and a wild swing was all it took to stop Nidoran from coming in again. Nidoran was doing pretty well without him. Red smiled.  
"Nido!" Red saw Nidoran's hind legs come further in than they normally did, and gave a warning.  
"He's going over." Nidoran seemed surprised, but it was too late to stop and there was nothing he could do to stop the hard blow from striking him straight in the stomach. Nidoran flew back and landed hard. He staggered to his feet, and ran to the side just in time to stop Machop from following up.  
"Ran!" Nidoran was so much faster than Machop he really got to control the pace. He made room and closed it whenever he wanted, raining blows that Machop couldn't deal with. Still, Machop was following Red's lead better than he'd expected, and the few times he was able to capitalize on an opening Red saw, the blows were devastating.  
"King!" Nidoran slammed a double kick straight through Machop's guard (they’d have to work on that) and the fighting type staggered. A peck knocked him off his feet, and Nidoran came in for another double kick.  
"Enough." The first kick was already out, and hit Machop hard, but Nidoran was able to cancel the second one. "Great job guys." Red said. "Come here." Nidoran was a bit bruised, but mostly fine. Machop had taken a few nicks, so Red decided to give him an application of potion. They could all have oran berry for lunch. Speaking of...  
"Why don't we break for lunch?" Red hadn't planned on having a machop to feed, but he'd packed plenty and Nurse Joy had told him that a day or two of the food he packed for his other pokemon wouldn't hurt. He gave Machop some of Nidoran's just because it was the one in his hand, and he let the fighting type use his atlas as a plate since he didn’t have a spare bowl. Red had however, grabbed batteries, and Magnemite was all too glad to suck on one of those while Red poured everyone else's food. Red just had a sandwich for himself, and they ate in silence for a bit.  
"You did great in that fight, Machop." Red told the fighting type, "You don't get many chances to actually fight though, do you?"  
"Chop chop." Machop shook his head.  
"Yea, I could tell. You're really strong, but you're not used to using it. All we need to do is practice a bit and I bet you'll be as strong as Nidoran and Charmander in no time." The fighting type seemed pleased, and Red turned his attention to Nidoran. "You too. I know I normally call the shots, but I'm glad you can do it yourself if you need to."  
"Ran!" Nidoran nodded and smiled at Red. Then, he started to glow.  
"Mite?"  
"Chop?"  
"Char!"  
Red grinned as he watched his poison type grow. His legs stretched farther out behind him, and Red had to lean back to stay out of the way of his growing horn. It only took a few seconds, before the glowing stopped and...  
"Nidorino!" Nidorino finished evolving. The poison pin pokemon shifted so it could look at itself, a stunned look on his face.  
"Congrats Nidorino." Red smiled. "How's it feel?"  
"Rino..." Nidorino's ears twitched and he took a few slightly wobbly steps. He steadied quickly enough, and even did a few practice thrusts with his horn before turning to Red. "Rino! Nido Rino!"  
"I'm happy for you bud." Red said. Nidorino looked at him with a smile, before swaying slightly, his eyes drooping. "Gramps said evolution takes a lot out of you." Red said, "Why don't you rest up in your pokeball ok?"  
"Nido." Nidorino nodded, and Red returned him.  
Two new catches and an evolution. This little trip had been pretty good huh?  
~~~~~~  
"Return guys." Red put his pokemon away as he walked into Cerulean proper, hopping down a ledge that overlooked the gym and heading inside. It was early enough that if Blue had been training in the gym today, he'd still probably be here. Red scanned the gym and didn't see him. Either he'd been out training on a route, and Red would find him tomorrow, or he'd taken an off day. Only one way to find out. Red turned around and headed towards the pokemon center instead. If Blue was still in Cerulean he'd have the double room still, but if he wasn't, Red could get one for them.  
"Hey Red!" Or he could bump into him on the way. That also worked. Blue ran down the street, wildly waving a hand at Red while the quiet trainer waited for his friend to catch up. "You're back." Blue said, panting to catch his breath, "How'd it go?"  
"Not bad." Red thought about saying right away that he caught Machop, but no. Blue had dragged it out, so could Red. "I caught my magnemite."  
"Nice."  
"That powerplant is creepy by the way." Red said, "Everything is hiding but you can hear them buzzing before you can even see the place."  
"Really?"  
"Yea."  
Blue nodded as the two of them walked towards the pokemon center. "Good thing I don't have to go there then." He said, "Squirtle and Pidgeotto are gonna be plenty to deal with the gym."  
"I get it, you got the water starter." Red said, "Have fun in Vermillion."  
"Don't worry." Blue grinned, "I'll be so far ahead by then I'll have time to train up a ground type. And that's assuming Abra doesn't carry me through on her own."  
"Abra?" He got her to listen to him?  
"Yup." Blue lifted a pokeball, "I've been busy while you were gone Red. Went up to Route 24 and made a plan. Had everyone trip her up so I could catch her. With my hands I mean." Blue clenched and unclenched his fist a couple times. "Broke it down enough that she's at least listened to me a bit." Blue put Abra's pokeball back and rubbed his head, "I don't know what she's doing, but I get a bit of a headache whenever I let her out though. I was gonna ask Gramps about it when I got to the pokemon center actually."  
"Don't Psychic types form a link with their trainers?" Red remembered a question about that somewhere...  
"Only if their trainer is a strong enough psychic to start it." Blue said.  
"And we both know you're not smart enough for that."  
"Hey!" Blue pushed Red, and Red stumbled a few feet to the side as he laughed. "You got what, 5 more questions than me on the trainer test? Don't act like you're all that."  
"You're right." Red said, "You did get all the easy ones. That counts for something."  
"Hey, I'm the one actually using it." Blue ran a few steps ahead so he could look Red in the eye, "Remind me again, who's doing better as a trainer?"  
"Well when you start on easy mode~" Blue huffed, and after a moment both boys started laughing.  
"I still think Abra's the coolest catch out of us so far."  
"Maybe." Red said.  
"Oh what, magnemite's cooler? Alakazam can outthink magnezone any day of the week."  
"Doubt it. Mine's pretty smart already." Red said.  
"Gramps'll prove me right watch!"  
"If it helps you sleep at night." Red said, "Besides, I wasn't talking about Magnemite. They're pretty cool though."  
"Oh what Nidoran? I fought like 4 trainers with one as a warmup yesterday."  
"Nidorino’s pretty cool too.”  
“But not as co- wait, Nidorino?”  
“Yea. He evolved earlier.” Red said. “Did I forget to mention that?” Blue scowled.  
“Yea well Abra’s still cooler! You just did as that Liam guy told you.”  
“Liam suggested I get him yea. Doesn’t mean he’s not cool. Besides, he’s not who I’m talking about.”  
"Huh?" Blue looked at him, "What do you- No... What is it?"  
"A machop." Red said.  
"Where do you even find those? Don’t they live in the mountains?"  
"One was training up on route 10." Red said, "He was so impressed with me he refused to let me leave without him."  
"You're lying." Blue said, crossing his arms.  
"Swear." Red grabbed Machop's pokeball. "He asked to spar and I beat him. Did it again the next day and when I got back from the power plant he was waiting for me."  
"Just like that?"  
"Just like that."  
Blue groaned, "Fine fine." He muttered, "Abra's still cooler."  
"Doubt it." Red said, "My whole team's cooler though."  
"No it isn't!"  
"Starters cancel out." Red started counting on his fingers, "A flying type so common I can literally see one on that roof over there. A rat, and abra." Red looked at Blue, "Nidoran is cooler than Pidgey, and Magnemite's way cooler than a Rattata. No offense."  
"Some taken." Blue crossed his arms, "And pidgeots are way cooler than Nidoking. How many top trainers use nidoking huh? Pidgeot are insane if you can train them right. Nidoking's got nothing on it."  
The two kept bickering as they went into the pokemon center. Red had Nurse Joy look over his pokemon and make sure Nidorino was fine after his evolution. After that, Red went up to the room and Blue went to talk with Gramps. Red could wait until the morning, he wasn’t in a rush.  
"So what's Machop gonna do against Misty?" Blue asked.  
"I... don't know." Red admitted. Machop didn't learn really anything naturally outside of close range fighting moves. Against Misty there really wasn't anything he could do as long as she stayed in the water. "We'll figure that out when we get there. Abra?"  
"Depends on if she evolves or not." Blue shrugged, "Abra don't do much of anything until then. If she catches up enough to evolve before the rest are ready, she can join. Otherwise I think I'll stick with the other three."  
Red fiddled with Machop's pokeball. He didn't want to just not use one of his pokemon, especially this early. But he really didn't have a plan for Machop here. It would be better to just leave him on the sidelines and let him help when they got to Vermillion, wouldn't it?  
He'd see where Machop was at when they battled Misty. Just like Abra.  
~~~~~~  
"Red?"  
"Morning Gramps." Red said.  
"How are you doing? Did catching a magnemite go well?"  
Red nodded, fiddling with a pokeball. "It went better than I expected."  
"Oh? What do you mean?"  
"I... might have caught a machop too."  
"Really?" Gramps raised an eyebrow. "And how did that happen?"  
"I bumped into him on route 10. I had a few battles and he decided to come with me."  
"You must have really impressed him!" Gramps said, grinning through the monitor, "I'm proud of you Red!" Red bowed his head and smiled. There was a moment of silence, before Gramps continued, "I take it you want advice on caring for him?"  
"I've been reading the pokedex!" Red said, "I just haven't had the time to go through all of it."  
Gramps let out a small laugh. "I believe you Red, calm down. The most important thing to know is that machop are a very stubborn species by nature. You have to be firm with them or you'll never get anywhere." Red nodded. "This is especially true with the actual training of them." Red tilted his head, "Machop want to grow strong, but they don't know the best way to do it without help. They tend to workout the same few muscles because those are the only exercises they learn and figure out." That explained why Machop didn't know any warmups. The introduction in the pokedex just said they studied martial arts. "I can send over a file on various workouts and basic fighting techniques for you to start with. Find out what works best for him and focus on one for now." Red nodded.  
"Thank you."  
"Of course." Gramps said. Then his smile faded, "More importantly though, is showing them restraint. Machop are known for working themselves too hard. Even if they pull a muscle, they don't rest. Even if they break a bone they don't tend to stop for more than a day at a time. You have to be firm and stop him from doing that. He's going to fight you, and if you aren't careful he'll even train without your permission. Don't let him." Machop would hurt himself? Red's grip on his pokeball tightened. He didn't want that to happen.  
"Advice?"  
"A firm hand is all I can say." Gramps said, "Machop don't change their mind easily. You have to force the issue a bit. Machoke are even worse, but if you train him properly good habits should be ingrained in him by then." Red nodded. "I've sent over the proper training techniques," Gramps said, "It's up to you to make a regiment."  
Red pulled up a separate window and found the file Gramps sent. Inside were dozens of folders with different martial arts and workout styles. Red scrolled through it before turning back to Gramps and nodding.  
"Excellent." Gramps smiled. "Now, is there anything else? Do you have everything you need for Magnemite?"  
"Actually..." Red said, "I... might have made a deal when I caught them."  
"Oh?"  
"I kind of promised that you'd teach them about tech and stuff." Red looked down, "If you don't want to, its fine I can research it myself. It would eat into my time, but I can make room. When school starts back up I'm going to need to clear a day or two a week for that anyway. I can just get into the habit early. You're just better at it than I am so-  
"Red!" Red jumped and looked at Gramps.  
"Of course I'll help." The professor said, "It really wouldn't be a problem. I talk to plenty of the pokemon at the ranch. Your Magnemite wouldn't be an issue at all."  
"Oh." Red blushed a bit, "Um, thank you."  
"I said I'd help you and Blue in any way I could." Gramps said, "I mean it Red. Just ask." Red nodded. "Did you want to send them over today?"  
Red shook his head, "I wanted to train a little today. Get used to it."  
"Of course." Gramps said, "Pokemon should get used to their trainer before being separated after all. Take your time."  
"I want to send them over soon." Red said, "So they know I keep my promises. Is tomorrow fine?"  
Gramps smiled, "That sounds great. I look forward to meeting Magnemite then."  
"Don't let them out in the lab though." Red said, "They almost stole my pokedex when we met."  
Gramps laughed. "I'll keep that in mind."  
The two talked for a little longer, before Red said goodbye. Then he released Machop and calmed the fighting type down enough to sit in his lap.  
They could watch these videos together. That would be easier than trying to explain it secondhand,  
~~~~~~  
By the time Blue woke up, Red and Machop had decided on boxing as the fighting style to learn. Machop didn't seem super interested in learning to use his feet, and Red was mostly just happy he didn't want to learn anything like that capo-something thing they passed. With that done, Red made sure Machop paid attention as they studied one of the light days of training boxing recommended. He didn't want to let Machop push himself, but Red was a little scared if he tried to make the fighting type take a day off already he'd riot.  
When Blue made his way downstairs, the two boys fed their pokemon and went to eat themselves, before heading to the gym. While they were walking, they swapped stories. Apparently Blue was right, and most psychic types only formed connections with psychics, but the abra line formed connections with their trainers regardless. The headaches would go away when the bond got stronger, but for now Blue was just gonna have to carry persim berries.  
"So what are you gonna do about Machop?"  
"A strict schedule I guess." Red said, "I don't know what else I can do."  
"Good luck with that then bud." Blue said. The two were silent for a moment, before Blue asked, "So what's your training plan for today?"  
"See how Nidorino's doing, pair him with Charmander, then focus on Magnemite. Machop has drills I'm going to make sure he follows."  
"Got it. I'm gonna be focusing on Abra. Pidgeotto's gotten used to her form, so I think letting her train rattata is fine. Can Squirtle join Nidorino and Charmander?"  
"Sure."  
They made it inside the gym, and Blue sent out his normal types to get them going while Red sent out Nidorino and Charmander.  
"Char!"  
"Rino!"  
"Hey guys." Red smiled. "How are you feeling Nidorino?"  
"Rin, rino!" Nidorino nodded, and Red smiled.  
"Great. I want to see how you do in a drill. Charmander, you want to help with that?  
"Char!" The fire type ran a few yards away, and Red turned to his poison type.  
"You're bigger now, so you won't be able to dodge as easy. Don't worry if you can't do as well as normal. It'll take some getting used to being a nidorino, ok?"  
"Rino."  
"Ok, let's go." Red looked across the field Charmander had outlined for them, and gave the word. Embers started flying immediately, and Nidorino-  
Immediately tripped over his own feet and fell. At least most of the embers went over him.  
"Well that didn't go well." Red said, kneeling down next to his pokemon. "I guess you should get used to running a bit before trying to dodge huh?"  
"Rino." Nidorino looked down.  
"Hey, it's ok bud." Red smiled, "We both know that once you get this down you'll be even better than ever. You've just gotta practice a bit." Red gently ran a hand over Nidorino's head. "Why don't you do laps for a bit? Get used to longer legs. Then we can do bursts."  
"Rino." Nidorino nodded and clambered awkwardly back up. Then he started doing an awkward jog along the perimeter of the gym. Red watched him for a bit before turning to Charmander.  
"Well you and Squirtle are gonna be doing drills. Do your best, ok?"  
"Char!" Charmander nodded, giving Nidorino a look before turning to glare at the turtle pokemon Blue just released. After a few words from Blue, Squirtle stopped glaring back and took off towards the pool, with Charmander hardly a step behind.  
"Those two are worse than us." Blue said with a laugh. "Have fun Red." Blue tossed a pokeball to release Abra, who floated next to him. "All right Abra, why don't we see how fast you can teleport today." Red watched Blue walk off for a few seconds, before sending out Machop.  
"Chop!"  
"Hey Machop. You're gonna be doing those drills we saw earlier. I'll be checking in, so follow them as close as you can, ok?"  
"Ma Cho-op." Machop groaned.  
"They aren't fancy, but even masters say they're a good place to start. We can do something more intense tomorrow, deal?"  
"Chop!" Machop got into his fighting stance and Red gave him a look.  
"That means the stretches too."  
"Chop." Machop let his hands fall and looked at Red.  
"You wanted me to train you right? That means you've gotta do as I say. If you want I can do these with you."  
"Ma." Machop sighed, and Red held his own back. Hopefully this would get easier as Machop got used to it. Red went through Machop's stretches with him, and stopped the fighting type a couple of times when he could clearly see Machop managing to overdo stretches. Then he helped the fighting type with his stance and left him to practice a few basic combos.  
"Magnemite, come on out." The electric type didn't hesitate to immediately dart around, looking curious at practically everything. Red actually had to grab them before Magnemite ran over and probably fried one of the gym computers. "Calm down buddy." Red said. After a few more moments of struggling, Magnemite stilled and Red let go. "You can check out a computer tomorrow, ok? Right now it's training time." Magnemite's eye flicked over to Machop, then Nidorino as he completed a lap, then Charmander as he nailed Squirtle the moment the water type popped his head out of the water.  
"Mite."  
"We're gonna start by getting better at aiming. Are you ready?"  
"Magne." Magnemite bobbed up and down. Red smiled. Ok, now they just needed a target and-  
"Excuse me?" Red turned to see a man in a full body swimsuit with the gym logo on the back standing next to him.  
"Y-yea?"  
"Gym rules say electric types have to train on the left side." He said, "Weaker pokemon and young trainers train on the right, you see."  
Red nodded. "Sorry."  
"It's fine. Part of my job to let people know. If there's anything you need let me know, k?"  
"A target?" Red asked, "He's not good at aiming yet." The man nodded.  
"I'd suggest renting a pair of rubber soled shoes too then." The gym trainer said, "We try to keep as much water in the pools as possible, but things happen."  
"Please." Red got a pair of rubber shoes and swapped into them, and in that time the gym trainer had dragged a big training dummy like the one Blue had gotten the other day and set it up for Red. He thanked the man and waited for him to leave, before turning and grabbing Magnemite before the steel type wandered off.  
"You ready buddy?" Red asked.  
"Mite."  
"Ok, let's try thunder shock again. Remember what I told you yesterday?"  
"Magnemite." Magnemite sparked wild enough for Red to take a step back, before the electricity concentrated in front of them and fired. It missed the dummy and hit the wall, but it was still a lot better than it had been at first yesterday.  
"Great job bud. Let's try again, ok?" Red glanced to the side and checked on his other pokemon. Charmander was doing fine, and- where was- Oh yea, the nidorino was his, he'd have to get used to that- Nidorino was already getting better, even if he did shoulder check the wall when he tried to make that turn. Machop- "Back in a second Magnemite." Red said to the magnet pokemon as he walked over to Machop, who had taken a dummy someone must have left alone and was using it as a weight for shoulder presses  
"Machop?"  
"Chop! Chop chop!"  
"What happened to the exercises I told you to do?" Machop shrugged. "Didn't we agree that you'd be doing those today?" Another shrug. What was Red supposed to do? Machop wanted to get stronger, so maybe... "I guess you don't want to be as strong as Charmander then."  
"Chop?!" Machop dropped the training dummy so fast Red barely had time to leap back and save his toes. Well that worked.  
"Charmander had to do basic training to get where he is too after all."  
"Chop choke, chop."  
"It's true." Red looked to where the two starters were taking a breather. "Hey Charmander. Metal claw training." Charmander looked confused, but he lifted his claw and it flashed silver a few times in quick succession, before he did the other, then alternated them. Red nodded, and the fire type shrugged, before turning back to Squirtle and starting another round. "He spent days getting that down." Red said, "Sat in one spot working on that." Machop watched the fire type with a curious look on his face. "You've got to learn the basics before you get to the fun stuff, ok?"  
"Chop." Machop sighed, before getting back in his stance. Red adjusted it, before turning back-  
"Magnemite!" And running over just in time to once again save the gym's computer.  
Dear Mew Red hoped these two stopped being such a handful soon. Red didn't want to know how the gym would act if he actually broke something.  
~~~~~~  
"Today we're watching the Gym Leader fight." Red told his pokemon over breakfast. It had been a few days, and progress had been, well there'd been progress. Nidorino was doing sprint drills, running back and forth to get better at turning quickly again. In a day or two, Red would have him dodge Charmander's embers. Speaking of, Charmander hadn't evolved, but neither had Squirtle, not through lack of trying on either's part. Magnemite was getting better at aiming, but Red had to keep them on task constantly. Machop, Red had at least gotten him to do workouts that helped fighting instead of just brute force. He was definitely due for a rest day though, and this was how Red thought they should spend it.  
"Chop?"  
"Mite?"  
Of course, neither of his new pokemon knew what a gym leader was though. Why would they? "Misty's the strongest trainer in this place." Red said, "It's her job to help teach me to teach you guys, and our goal is to beat her." Machop looked interested, and Magnemite looked curious. "Today we're gonna watch her fight."  
"Chop? Chop chop ma?"  
"We can't just spar with her." Red said, "She's too busy for that. Today we're watching so we can see what she does. Then we can try and do it ourselves." Machop nodded slowly. "Remember what I said about boring days?" Machop groaned, before nodding more firmly. "Thanks bud." Red smiled. "We'll get back to practice tomorrow."  
They finished eating, and Red walked with Blue to the gym.  
"You said you watched her last week right?"  
"Yup. I'm glad we're not gonna have to fight a gyarados. She made it flip one of the platforms over because a trainer was hiding there too long." Red shuddered.  
"I've already lived through an onix thanks."  
"Yea. We're dealing with staryu, psyduck, horsea, and goldeen. A starmie if she's feeling mean." Oh fun.  
"Hopefully I get Psyduck and horsea." Red said. That would be nice and simple.  
"Taking the easy way out Red?"  
"Charmander. Pool." Blue laughed.  
"Fine, fine." He said. "I hope she's doing an LLT today. She didn't last week."  
Red nodded. Seeing Misty go all out against someone would be amazing. The two of them made it to the gym and fought about where to sit for a minute, before the fact that they had a curious electric type with them made Blue agree that sitting farther back outside the 'splash zone' was probably a good idea. They chatted and kept their pokemon occupied for a few minutes as they watched Misty send out a poliwrath to pull some of the platforms out, leaving only a couple of the medium sized ones. The poliwrath was returned, and she grabbed a pokeball, holding it loosely in her hand as the first trainer of the day was called.  
"Edna Kimie, Edna Kimie, Misty is ready for your badge challenge." A woman in her mid twenties came down, holding onto a pokeball and clearly nervous. Misty said a few words, and lead a golduck. Edna swapped pokeballs at the last second and sent out a nidorina. Even though they fought completely different than nidorino, Red still leaned forward a bit.  
"Toxic!"  
"Psybeam then disable!" The psybeam splattered the toxic, and Misty's golduck dove into the water to appear closer to nidorina. Dark energy surrounded Nidorina's face, but it disappeared instantly and golduck frowned. Fury swipes slammed into the duck, before it dove again.  
"Toxic the water!"  
"Stop her!" Golduck appeared again and smacked nidorina just before the attack could come out, it went wide, and golduck used confusion to knock it farther to the side, where the barrier dissolved it. The two traded fury swipes, neither backing up, before golduck's eyes glowed and nidorina went flying. A surf ended it.  
"Discharge!" Raichu. Red zoned out a bit. Her main strategy was Raichu obviously. For the same reason Red had- Magnemite get back here!- Nidorina tried to toxic the water. It would dilute a lot but- her goal must have been to put as much in there as she could. So when golduck went down, like it just did, the seaking that came out would be affected. If it worked that would've been smart, but Misty hadn't let her. This was eight badge after all she couldn't make it easy. Seaking had lightning rod apparently. That hurt Edna's plan. Should she- yes she switched to a persian. It was stuck on the defensive. It couldn't go after seaking. How did you- She baited out a horn attack and dragged it on land. Seaking down. That meant raichu was free right? It was four on four, so it would have to take out two pokemon, but she had backup still.  
Starmie same out. It peppered persian from afar and punished a lack of ranged moves. How would Red and Machop handle that? Nidorino was going to learn thunderbolt, what about Machop?  
Edna forfeited persian. It must really not have had anything. Raichu came back out. Starmie attacked before it could get discharge off. Misty was going on the offensive and closing space so raichu didn't have the chance to use electric attacks. Quick attack made space, but starmie pushed the other platform before Raichu could jump across. It took a thunderbolt, but a psychic smacked Raichu and knocked it in. Starmie floated above the water. Every time raichu popped up, an ice beam knocked it down. Raichu was getting frantic, and Edna forfeited it too. Arcanine-  
Red winced. That wasn't good. Arcanine took out starmie, but it took a few water guns for it. Misty sent out a gyarados. It thrashed underwater, and sent waves up at Arcanine. The fire type couldn't do anything. How would Charmander deal with that? He could... He could...  
Did charizard naturally learn solar beam? Would a TM be worth it? Would it even help here?  
Edna forfeited again and left for the pokemon center.  
"She was doing good at first." Blue said, "Her plan kinda fell apart though." Red nodded.  
"She was kinda relying on Raichu wasn't she?"  
"Yea definitely. I mean yea use your advantage, but could any of her other pokemon attack underwater?"  
"That's what toxic was for."  
"Toxi- Oh right. That's clever."  
The poliwrath came out and replaced the two platforms with one big enough that only the edges of the pool were available. Drew Norihiro was called down, and Red looked at the scoreboard. He was going for the second badge, just like Red and Blue.  
"Pay attention guys." Red said to his pokemon, "Our battle's gonna be kinda like this." This one would be a 4 on 1 with Misty at a disadvantage. She started with a starmie.  
"Go oddish!" Starting with the grass type. Red nodded. Drew started off aggressive, throwing out absorbs and acids that starmie batted aside with rapid spins. As soon as he tried to use growth, starmie came in and slammed into oddish instead. Drew threw out a poison powder, and it hit, but starmie knocked oddish far enough that a follow up water gun put the grass type in the pool. Drew frantically returned it before it drowned and sent out an ekans. Ekans stalled for time and made starmie approach. Drew was trying to make use of poison. Starmie used recover, and Drew paled. There went that plan.  
Recover... Charmander and Nidoran were fast enough to put pressure. That would probably be enough to stop recover. Red couldn't say if Magnemite and Machop could do the same though. They'd have to train more to find out.  
Ekans was fast too, and it was able to weave through water guns pretty well. It landed a few good hits, before a rapid spin sent it flying. A sandshrew followed. Drew didn't look happy about that, and Red couldn't blame him. When he went on the defense, starmie used recover, but when he was aggressive he took a couple of painful water guns. Sandshrew barely did anything before it went down. What was Drew's plan?  
Butterfree apparently. It flew above starmie and started dropping stun spore. Misty didn't do anything to stop it. Would she let thunderwave go the same way? The paralysis evened the odds a lot. Butterfree was faster now, and even though Drew was scared of getting too wet, he was able to put pressure and stop any more recovers from going off. Butterfree took a few hits, but Drew was cautiously aggressive and threw out just enough moves to keep starmie from feeling safe. Red could probably do that with Nidorino and Magnemite, right? It looked pretty effective, so he wanted to try at least. The battle was slow, and after a while Misty called it before starmie actually went down. Drew almost fell in the pool when he ran over to hug his slightly damp butterfree.  
"He did really well." Blue said. "Nothing I can really use, but he did good."  
"Thunder wave might be a strategy."  
"That would be the best way to deal with recover for you huh?" Red nodded. "Ugh. All I've got is either trying to rush in with Pidgeotto or making her hesitate by doing the bubble trap with Squirtle. That's her trick! I don't think she'd let me get away with it." Blue groaned, "Here's hoping we don't have to deal with that right guys?" Blue winced a bit when he got three cries in his ear at once, reaching into his bag and pulling out a smaller pouch of persim berries. Abra had been floating near the rafters, and teleported down to poke Blue's cheek. Then she pointed at the berry in Blue's hand.  
"You too?" Blue asked. "Fine, here. Just one though." Blue handed her the berry he'd been about to eat and Abra teleported back up to the rafters, nibbling at it. Blue looked at her for a second, before grabbing a berry and popping it in his mouth.  
"The link's giving her headaches too?"  
"Think so. I don't think they're as bad, but sometimes she comes and demands I give her one." Misty's poliwrath finished rearranging the platforms, and instead of returning him Misty let the fighting type run over and sit down next to a random girl in the stands. Machop got up from where he'd been sitting and dropped down a seat.  
"Where are you going?"  
"Chop chop ma." Machop pointed at the poliwrath.  
"No, you can't ask him to spar." Red said, "He's working." Red barely even noticed as he reached out to grab Magnemite, wrapping his arms around the steel type so it wouldn't fly away while he dealt with Machop.  
"Ma chooooop"  
"Why poliwrath of all pokemon?" Machop flexed. "Because he looks strong?" Nod. Red sighed, "Tomorrow we can ask to spar ok? For today we're watching the battles."  
"Chop!"  
"Misty has more than one poliwrath." Red said, "If you sit down maybe she'll use one of them." Machop crossed his arms, but did as Red asked. Red rubbed his face, "Can I get one of those?"  
Blue laughed, but pulled the berry pouch out again, "Sure. I only have one headache, but it looks like you have two."  
"We'll see who's laughing when these guys destroy you at Indigo Plateau."  
"Already accepting you'll lose next time? Or are you just scared to fight me until you train that much?"  
"I was giving you time actually." Red said, "You needed a head start to beat me last time after all."  
"You wanna go and see if you can back that up Red?"  
Machop perked up and Red sighed, "Now you've done it. Fine Machop. One spar during the break. Deal?"  
"Chop!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is a day late and I'm sorry. I could make the excuse of school starting back up, or writer's block, or anything else. It would even be true. Its my fault for getting in that position though. I admit I'm not happy with this chapter, but I couldn't put it off another day.
> 
> To make up for it though, I'll be posting the next chapter a day early on March the First instead of Tuesday. I hope you all have a great day. See you then.


	10. Prepping for a Swim

"Mander!" Charmander shot an ember at Squirtle just as the water type popped out of the water. It clashed with a water gun and fizzled out, leaving the fire type to get hit hard by the rest of the attack and Squirtle absolutely unharmed as he dove back into the water with a laugh.  
That was the most common thing that happened when they were training. The type and terrain advantages made it so Squirtle was in control of the tempo and had an edge when Charmander did manage to fight back. Fighting Misty would be the same. There wasn't all that much they could do about it.  
But that still left a couple of things they could do.  
"Excuse me?" Red had seen one of the gym trainers working with a kingdra the past few days. It was what gave him the idea in the first place.  
"Yes?" The man turned around. He was fairly big, and built like someone used to harsh work, despite wearing a swimsuit. "Anything I can do for you?"  
"Um, well, can your kingdra help me? I want to teach my charmander dragon rage."  
"Dragon rage huh? Well, Anastasia here doesn't know dragon rage, but she's got dragon pulse. It'll give you guys a place to start at least. Come on girl, let's go." He returned the water type and followed Red over to where Charmander was sitting at the edge of the pool, taking a break. He didn't look hurt, just a little tired and frustrated. Squirtle had gone over to sit near Blue, breathing hard and rubbing at the muscles in his legs. Well, he had been swimming all around that whole time. Charmander mostly had to stand still and turn around.  
"Hey buddy." Red knelt down and ran a hand over Charmander's slightly damp head. "We're gonna be learning a new move, ok? It'll be tough, but I'm sure it'll help you beat Squirtle."  
"Char? Charmander!" Charmander bounced to his feet and looked up at the gym trainer with a big smile. The gym trainer sent his kingdra back out, and she looked at Charmander for a moment. The fire type met her stare, and they both stilled.  
...  
...  
...  
Charmander looked down.  
"Dra. Kin Sea."  
"She approves." The gym trainer said. "Name's Parker, and my partner here's name is Anastasia. It takes a bit of stubbornness to learn dragon type moves." Parker knelt down so he was closer to Red's height. "Now, the thing about dragon type attacks is that they come from somewhere deep. Real deep. If it's anything like Anastasia and her water, you have to pull fire from somewhere inside right?"  
"Cha!"  
"Well essentially it's the same as that. You're just pulling from a different energy source. Real primal from what teaching her taught me."  
"Dra." Anastasia nodded, "Kin, sea king."   
"Char." Charmander closed his eyes and took a breath. A moment later, smoke started leaking out, and Anastasia reached out to jab him with her nose. "Cha!" Charmander jumped.  
"King. King dra dra."  
"Dragon energy doesn't make smoke." Parker said, "It's not even all that hot. He was in the wrong source." Red nodded, and watched his starter practice. "Fair warning, he won't have any resistance to it when he actually summons it." Red turned to the gym trainer, "He's used to fire, but this isn't fire. Anastasia couldn't talk for a week when she got it for the first time. It burned her and she swallowed it." Parker gave a small chuckle that was instantly swallowed up by the water gun that was suddenly in his face.  
"Dra. King King."  
"Sorry sorry." He said to the dragon type, who's attention turned to prod Charmander for losing focus. "Sorry bout that. She doesn't like being reminded." Anastasia glared at him enough to ensure her trainer changed the subject, "Make sure you have oran and sitrus berries for it. Liquid preferably. I don't know if cheri would help, but Anastasia preferred it.`` Red nodded.  
The two trainers fell silent for a moment, watching the two pokemon. Anastasia jabbed Charmander whenever his mouth started smoking or his attention seemed to fade. The fire type occasionally opened his mouth, but outside of a single ember that Anastasia drowned out as soon as she saw it (Charmander wasn't amused, but Squirtle seemed perfectly fine taking a wing attack from Pidgeotto in exchange for laughing at him) did nothing. His tail flame flickered a little less as the fire type calmed down, but it didn't burn any less.  
If anything, it burned stronger. In fact... Red could swear he saw... blue... The fire type didn't seem to notice, but Parker met Anastasia's eye, then Red's and gave the trainer a smile. Did that mean-  
Charmander started glowing. Charmander started glowing! Red jumped, eyes wide as he watched his starter slowly get bigger. Blue and Squirtle glanced over, and Squirtle's eyes widened, before, perhaps through sheer force of will, he started glowing as well.   
"Charmeleon!"  
"Wartortle!"  
The two starters locked eyes with each other and grinned, before swaying almost as one and getting caught by their trainers.  
"Take a rest bud. Great job." Red returned his starter and saw Blue doing the same.  
"Well... we meant a different energy source now didn't we Anastasia?"  
"Dra." the dragon pokemon laughed.  
"Looks like Charmeleon's taking the rest of the day off huh?"  
Red nodded, "Sorry we wasted your time."  
"Not a problem." Parker said, "Spending half an hour bullying a newbie is right up Anastasia's alle-" Another water gun cut him off, and it didn't stop until he fumbled for her pokeball and returned the kingdra. Parker shook his head and wiped the water from his eyes, before continuing his train of thought, "We didn't plan on helping with evolution, but we're happy to help any way we can. When Charmeleon's ready for it let us know and we'll help you again."  
Red nodded, and he walked over to Blue.  
"Took 'em long enough eh Red?" Red rolled his eyes. "So what was that guy teaching you that caused an evolution huh? Might need to remember that."  
"Dragon rage." Red said."  
"Dragon rage?"  
"It does better against water types than anything else I can learn."  
"So scared of Wartortle is it changing your entire strategy?"  
"Fire type. Water gym." Red said, "You're really not that funny Blue."  
"Excuse you, I'm hilarious. And I'm also about to head to the pokemon center." Blue put his fingers in his mouth to let out a whistle. Pidgeotto dove over and Rattata was right behind. Blue looked up first, and saw Abra floating above his head. Three returns later and he was waiting for Red to wrangle his own pokemon.  
Red waited a few seconds for Nidorino to make it back to them from where he'd been doing laps. "Nidorino, we’re having an early lunch.  
"Rino!" Red returned the poison type and walked over to where he'd allowed Machop to do some training unsupervised. (He listened to Red when he'd added better workouts to the fighting type's routine, so he wasn't concerned with him today.)  
"Machop come on, we're taking an early break."  
"Chop?"  
"Charmander evolved. It's tiring so we're gonna do an early lunch."  
"Chop chop ma."  
"No, you can't spar with him. He's resting for the day." Machop crossed his arms. "Now come on."  
"Chop." Machop sighed, and Red returned him, before going over to where Blue was waiting. Magnemite was with Gramps today, so Red was ready.  
"Took you long enough."  
"Just like it took Wartortle long enough to evolve?"  
"Hey, he evolved right after Charmeleon!"  
"After. And because of. And that's after a week off. You really need to step up your game Blue." Red smirked, and the two boys left to go to the pokemon center.  
Point Red.  
~~~~~~  
"Sending Magnemite over now." Gramps said. Red nodded, and a moment later the pokeball appeared and he slid it onto his belt. "Magnemite is quite curious." Gramps laughed, "I swear if I left them alone for even a moment they found something else interesting to investigate and ask me about."  
"They weren't too much trouble?"  
"Red, if one pokemon was too much trouble I'd need to retire." The professor said, "I had Arcanine corral them so they didn't run off and let them follow me around all day. It's nice to explain some of the things around the lab to someone every now and then. Everyone here either already knows how they work, or doesn't care beyond how it helps with their job. I will say, Magnemite was quite interested in speakers."  
"Speakers?"  
"Indeed. Every time something played they jumped and tried to rush over. I explained to them how it works and, well... they seem to have translated it into a very basic sonic boom."  
"Sonic boom?"  
"Yes. They seemed quite pleased too. Although, you two should work on Magnemite's aim quickly." Red winced.  
"I've been trying... They aren't getting it as fast as Charmander did."  
"Magnemite tend to be a calculating species." Gramps said, "Maybe try to explain things in math terms instead of plain language?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"Well..." Gramps typed for a few moments, and suddenly his screen was replaced with a graph. "Why not describe their attacks as a ray. Teach them to focus them at an endpoint" A blue dot appeared, "And create a ray that intersects with the target." Another dot appeared, this one red. Then, a blue line went between them and past the red one offscreen. "Electric type attacks don't tend to be perfectly straight, but Magnemite will be able to calculate that on their own with practice." Red nodded, before realizing the professor probably couldn't see him.  
"I get it."  
"If they still struggle, adjust them in degrees instead of saying 'A little to the right.' Does that make sense?"  
"Yes." The screen went back to showing Gramps, who was smiling.  
"Excellent. Now, I know you have a busy day ahead of you. I wish you the best of luck."  
"Thank you." Red said. They ended the call, and Red headed over to the gym. He asked if Machop could train with one of the poliwraths (they leaned more heavily into their water typing, but it was still the best training partner they had around here), set Charmeleon and Nidorino to do tag drills, and got a target to practice with Magnemite.  
"Mite!"  
"Hey buddy. Red said, "How was your day back at the lab?"  
"Mite! Magne mite ton mag!" Red laughed.  
"I'll take that as a 'you loved it.'" Magnemite bobbed up and down. "Gramps said you were learning a new move. You wanna show me?"  
"Mite!" Magnemite hummed a bit, a scraping sound similar to a faint metal sound coming behind it. Their magnet's glowed white, and after a moment, it launched-  
Behind Magnemite and right over Red's head. He ducked, and saw someone else do the same thing halfway across the gym. Red lifted a hand as an apology, before turning back to Magnemite. Ok... that's what he meant by basic. It was really more of a wall than a blade too, so they had a few things to work on from the look of it.  
"Ok bud." Red said, meeting Magnemite's eye. "First things first, why don't we try and get that to aim forward." Red walked over to Magnemite and put a hand in front of them, "Think of this right here as the start point. All of your attacks should start here, and go from there. Does that make sense?"  
"Mite!"  
"Good." Red smiled, "And when you fire, think about it like a ray." Red put his arm out in front of Magnemite, keeping his elbow as close to that starting spot as he could, "Adjust the angle that it fires, but make sure it starts from this point. Can you give it a try?"  
"Mite!" Magnemite bobbed, and Red took a step back while they started glowing. The trainer who'd almost gotten hit before noticed and tensed, but thankfully, Magnemite was able to take what Red said. It didn't hit the target, but the sonic boom hit the wall a few feet to the left.  
"Great job bud." Red smiled. "You're aim's a little off though. Try and adjust it... 15 degrees to the right, maybe?"  
"Mite!!" Magnemite charged up an attack before Red could get out of the way, and this time, it hit the target perfectly. It splashed harmlessly against the target, but it hit.  
"You did it Magnemite." Red ran a hand over the top of Magnemite, and he could feel his hair standing on end.  
"Magnemite!"  
"Now let's work on condensing it so it hits harder huh?"  
~~~~~~  
Apparently there were only two people in the gym qualified to help teach thunderbolt to non-electric type pokemon. Misty, who was busy enough that she only ever did it in a bulk class once a month or so, and someone who was only there part time. So, Red and Nidorino had to wait a few days for her to show up.  
"Hey, you're that kid they said is looking to learn thunderbolt right?" Red looked away from where he'd been observing Charmeleon and Nidorino do their dodge training (ember was easier to relearn than running around, so Charmeleon was trying to use it to increase the strength and length of his embers. It slowed him down enough to give Nidorino a better chance.) The person talking to him looked like she was still in high school, a sophomore at most. She had a backpack over one shoulder and she looked like she'd just come from school. That didn't make sense though. It was Saturday right? And summer.  
Red nodded.  
"All right." She said, "Grab your pokemon and meet me..." She glanced around until she found one of the few isolated pools that was empty, "There. I've gotta drop off my stuff and grab my pokemon. Check out some rubber shoes."  
"You're teaching me?" Red had expected someone older. If only a couple people knew how to do it, then it had to be difficult right? As soon as Red saw the annoyed look on the girl's face he wanted to backpedal, but it was far too late.  
"Yea. What? You expected someone older? Well I expected a kid who got his pokemon early to not judge me for being young." Red opened his mouth to apologize, but she'd already turned and walked off.  
Oops...  
"Nidorino." Red said. His pokemon stopped their spar and the poison type ran over, panting a bit, but fine. "Time to learn thunderbolt. You ready?"  
"Rino!"  
"Charmeleon, see if Blue wants to let you join Pidgeotto and Wartortle. If he doesn't, work on smokescreen and dragon rage. K?"  
"Meel!"  
Red walked over and checked out a pair of rubber shoes, and he made it to the pool the gym trainer had specified at the same time she did. She hadn't changed (they probably wouldn't be getting in the water after all), but she had swapped her bag out a rubber board and a belt with a full party's worth of pokeballs. When he got closer, Red bowed his head.  
"Sorry." He murmured.  
"It's nothing I haven't heard a dozen times before." She said.  
"Still." Red said. "I, um, well, since they said that there was only one person who could teach me..."  
"You figured they'd be some wizened old master who's spent his whole life mastering how to teach any pokemon any move?"   
Red nodded. "Sorry."  
"It happens. I'm not that good but..." She released her pokemon.  
"Lanturn!"  
"I had plenty of motivation to learn how to control electricity in water." The trainer knelt down and ran a hand over her pokemon. Red didn't see any sign that she'd been even minorly shocked. "Missed you too girl. You were good for Misty right?"  
"Turn."  
"Great. Now, we've gotta teach someone how to use thunderbolt."  
"Turn, Lan, Lanturn."  
"Great." She turned to Red, "Now, the first thing you need to know is that electric attacks are dangerous. To nidorino here and everyone else. If he messes up, he can shock his own heart. If he hits you, he could stop yours. Until I've given you the all clear, don't use this, and never tell him to aim anywhere near another person."  
Red nodded.  
"Good. Now, electricity works because negative ions want to find something positive or get to the ground. Pokemon that use electric attacks are making negative ions and forcing them to take a long path. It's not easy to do, especially in the middle of battle. For now we'll try to make it as easy as we can for him to just start generating it. Then we'll work on controlling it. Nidorino, stand on this." She dropped the rubber board on the floor next to the pool and waited for Nidorino to stand on it. "Lanturn's gonna ionize the air a bit. It won't shock you since you're insulated, but you'll still feel it. Try to catch those and bounce them back at Lanturn's bulb, got it?"  
"Rino!" Nidorino nodded. A moment later, Lanturn's light started glowing, and Red could feel his neck prickling just a bit.  
"It'll take us a while to get this down." The gym trainer said, "I'm only free a couple days a week, and Misty needs a weeklong course to get trainers to the point they can practice without there being too big a risk of killing someone. Like a month and a half to get it to the point they can use it."  
"That long?" Red didn't know if he wanted to wait a month and a half for thunderbolt. Magnemite would probably be able to handle it by then.  
"Yup." She said, "They don't normally have one on one training though. It only takes me a month to get a starmie there. It'll probably be faster since you don't have the electric weakness." Three weeks. That was a long time... but would Red even be ready by then normally? Magnemite was still getting used to having a trainer, much less battling. Machop was a little better, but he wasn't going to be helpful here. Charmeleon had a disadvantage that dragon rage was barely covering, and Nidorino needed range to do this. Red might need all of that time if he was being honest...  
"Ok." He said. If he was ready before then, the next gym was an electric type gym after all. Someone had to be able to pick up where they left off.  
"He's doing well." The gym trainer said. Red's attention turned to Nidorino, and he saw the faintest of spark flicker away. It took a second or so before it faded again. "TM pokemon don't pick this up that quick."  
"Egg move."  
"Egg move?"  
"His dad had the TM."  
"Yea, that'll speed it up a bit." She said. The two of them were silent for a moment. What was Red supposed to say here?  
"Why are you dressed for school?" He blurted out the first thing he thought of.  
"Take summer classes." She said, "I'm not allowed at the gym unless I have good grades."  
That sucked. Red had to keep his grades up too, but his mom had never demanded summer classes. "Why... Do you have a lanturn?" He tried.  
"We should focus." She said, "If the sparks get closer to your nidorino's eyes or start bouncing away from Lanturn, something's going wrong. Easy to miss, so we shouldn't get distracted."  
"Right." Red said, "Sorry.  
~~~~~~  
"Ready bud?" Red said. He'd stayed with that gym trainer the two days she'd been free, and Nidorino was able to make sparks occur when Lanturn eased up a bit. It was good progress apparently, even if Red expected something more from two full days of training. Today he was giving Charmeleon attention though. They'd been using smokescreen a bit, but they didn't have the move down by any means. It was really more of an intentionally failed ember than a smokescreen. Red wanted to fix that. It would help hide from a water type trying to take shots at the very least.  
"Char!"  
"K, let's try and hold it for 5 seconds." Red said. The fire type took a breath, and exhaled slowly. Smoke started pouring out of his mouth almost immediately, even if it wasn't super thick. They weren't going for that right now after all. Red wanted Charmeleon to get used to holding smoke for a long time. Then they'd up the intensity until he could hide in it  
"On!" Charmeleon coughed, and Red waved his hand a few times to help dispel the smoke. The fire type didn't seem too affected by the cough beyond being annoyed that he got stopped because of it  
"Let's try again bud? After lunch we'll swap back over to dragon rage training."  
Charmeleon perked up at that. Hard not to when the first day of training for that move he'd evolved. Plus, Charmeleon just seemed to prefer offensive moves. Red was fine with that, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to force some defense, just in case they ever needed it.  
Charmeleon started panting for air at about 6 seconds that time.  
"Good job bud. Again." Red took a few steps back to keep out of the smoke, and after a few more cycles decided to just sit down in the stands since they were so close. Blue was sitting there too, Abra in his lap snoozing away.  
"Hey Red. How's it going?"  
"You can see."  
"Trying to blind the gym leader eh?"  
"Her pokemon mostly." Although... that would probably help... no, she was used to fighting underwater. They didn't need that much guidance.  
"Helps just as much." Blue said.  
"How's your training?"  
"I think Rattata's close to evolving. Pidgeotto is beating Wartortle in their little matches. This girl though?" Blue ran a hand over Abra's head, and the psychic type smacked it away, "Slow. The headaches are mostly gone, but there's just not much we can do to train until she evolves. Gramps said that having a trainer with a link like this would help speed things up, but we still don't have a time frame."  
Red nodded and fell silent. Charmeleon was getting to a consistent 5 seconds. "Thick clouds now." Red said, "Short, but as thick as you can make it."  
"Mel!" Charmeleon took a breath and fired a smokescreen that had a tiny amount of ember in it. The cloud flew away from him too fast for it to be usable as cover, but it was definitely fairly thick.  
"Good job bud. Now try to keep it at arm's distance."  
"Meeeeel." Charmeleon groaned, before trying again.  
"How's your plan coming?"  
"Magnemite's aim is a lot better." Red said, "Strength seems all right, but they don't do well in sparring matches. They're fast, but if anything catches their interest it leaves them wide open."  
"Seems like something you'll just have to beat out of them."  
"Yea." Red said. "That's what I'm hoping Nidorino can do today." Red turned to where the two pokemon were sparring. Nidorino was sticking to poison stings to keep from hurting Magnemite, and was peppering the steel type with them whenever he got close enough. Magnemite's attacks weren't frequent enough to really slow him down, but they were getting to be really accurate now, if always a bit behind Nidorino. Red would have to work with him on aiming a bit ahead of his target. The bigger issue was that every couple minutes, they'd just forget what was going on and Nidorino had to pull them back into their training match.  
"Speaking of. What about thunderbolt?"  
"It'll take time. I think I'll need it though."  
"I'm gonna do my qualifier tomorrow." Blue said.  
"Already?"  
"I don't think I'm ready for Misty, but I at least wanna make sure I'm that far. If it feels good, I might move up, but for now that's the plan."  
"Good luck."  
Charmeleon took a breath, and blasted a smokescreen that hid him from view for almost 10 seconds.  
~~~~~~  
"Ok Machop, today we'll be playing tag with the others." Red said.  
"Chop?"  
"You know that thing that they do where Nidorino tries to hit Charmeleon? I'm gonna have you try it."  
"Chop!"  
"Make sure you keep your guard up ok? I have rawst berries, but try not to get hit if you can."  
"Chop."  
"Charmeleon, you ready?"  
"Leon!"  
"Ok Machop, let's go." Machop took a step forward, and immediately had to step to the side to dodge an ember. Charmeleon fired another one just as he recovered, and Machop had to block it with his arms. He started approaching, slowly and steadily.  
"Left." Machop dodged to the left, and the second ember Charmeleon threw after the first one didn't even come close. "Forward. Hold. Charmeleon used his new smokescreen, and a moment later embers started flying out in the general area Machop was in. They weren't accurate, but Charmeleon couldn't see either. Red would have to figure out some way to tell the fire type where to aim when he was in there.  
Machop took a couple of embers to the arms and legs, but he kept his guard up and blocked the one that almost hit his face. The smoke started clearing, and Charmeleon was panting.  
"Now. Sprint."  
"Chop!" Machop broke stance and rushed forward. A metal claw came up to block the first blow, but the second came fast and slammed into Charmeleon's gut just a moment before another metal claw could block it. Red would have to make sure they brushed up on metal claw, now that he thought about it.  
"Great job Machop." Red said, kneeling down as the pint sized brawler ran over. "You ok? Any burns?"  
"Chop!" Machop shook his head and swung his arms out to the sides to show he was fine. Red still took out a potion and sprayed him, just in case. Machop might not realize how hurt he was, from what Gramps said.  
"Ok. Nidorino. You're up." Red said, "Machop's the one playing tag, so focus on dodging. Pepper him with horn attacks." Nidorino hadn't mastered that move, so that was good double training.  
"Rino."  
"K." Red turned to Machop. "Come on Bud, let's go." Nidorino stamped his foot, and seemed to be itching for the signal. "Now."  
"Rino!"  
"Chop! Nidorino sprinted into action, bolting around Machop's back and backing away just before a blow could get him.  
"Dodge right." Machop leapt to the right and Nidorino canceled his attack to do the same. He looked at Red, then Machop and scowled, before going back to harassing the fighting type."  
"Guard low." Machop lowered his arms just in time to block a horn attack to the gut, but he was still pushed back farther than Red expected. Machop looked up and gave Nidorino a 'come here' gesture.  
"Rino!" Nidorino took the bait and ran in. Machop blocked the attack but couldn't hit Nidorino in time.  
"Nidorino I said you're on defense."  
"Do Rado..." Nidorino complained, before jumping back as Machop approached. Nidorino did as Red had asked this time, and he only threw a few more horn attacks out, mostly in response to horrible overextensions on Machop's part. They went on for a while, Machop getting close but never quite managing to get a good hit on Nidorino. The poison type had gotten pretty used to his new form, Red couldn't help but note. They needed to do a few actual battles, all of them did, but Red thought they were doing pretty well.  
"Enough." Red said after the two broke up a bit. "You did really good Machop." Red said, "I'm proud of you bud."  
"Chop!" Machop puffed his chest out.  
"Your punches are a lot faster now aren't they?" Red said.  
"Chop!"  
"That's cause of the new workouts. You were building for muscle instead of power."  
"Chop?"  
"If you get big muscles they slow you down." Apparently. That's what it said when Red did research on it at least. "You weren't using all of those muscles, so working them out wouldn't do you much good."  
"Chop..." Machop nodded slowly.  
"And you're faster now too right?"  
"Chop!"  
"That from the stance and running drills. You weren't doing it right, so you were wasting a lot of energy with it."  
"Chop..." Good, he seemed open. Now for the tough sell...  
"And do you know the thing that's gonna help you improve the most?"  
"Chop?"  
"Rest days." Red could practically feel Machop shrugging that advice off. "I'm not kidding Machop."  
"Chop chop." Machop said, "Ma chop choke champ."  
"Your muscles need time to rest." Red explained. "That's how they grow."  
"Chop!" Machop flexed.  
"Working out is only the first step." Red tried. Hm... It wasn't exactly true but... "Your muscles grow a lot more in the first few workouts than the rest. You need to rest so you can trick them into thinking they need to work harder."  
"Chop?"  
"Your arms are sore aren't they?" Machop just shrugged, "That means they expect you to workout. They're ready for it. When they don't hurt your muscles need to work even harder to keep up. Enough that the day off is worth it."  
"Chop chop."  
"Don't believe me, ask any strong pokemon here. They'll all tell you the same thing. Promise."  
"Chop chop ma?"  
"Sparring only does part of the work." Red said.  
Machop waved a hand at Red, and the trainer sighed.  
"Ok. Why don't we go another round with Charmeleon? You rested up buddy?"  
"Char!"  
"Then let's go."  
"Chop!" The two pokemon got into positions, and Nidorino came and sat down next to Red.  
"Hey Nidorino." Red said, gently running a hand over the poison type. "You did great too. Most of those horn attacks came out right didn't they?"  
"Rino." Nidorino said, smiling a bit.  
"It's been a while since we cleaned your ears hasn't it? After training today how about we do that?"  
"Rino. Nidorino."  
"Sounds like a plan. First we need to give Machop a few more rounds. It isn't as good as battle experience, but without fighting Blue over and over it's the best we can do." Red wanted to surprise Blue with how strong they were. Training in the same gym ruined that a bit, but being training partners would ruin it even more.  
They probably had some kind of tournament here didn't they? Red should check that out.   
~~~~~~  
"Sure, I'll test you real quick. Just gimme your ID and I'll be back in a sec." Blue handed the gym trainer his ID and sat back next to Red.  
"Are you ready?"  
"Probably." Blue said, "Even if I'm not, I can just try again in a week or something."  
"Who are you using?"  
"Rattata if he sends out something like a psyduck or krabby. Besides that I'll try to carry with Wartortle and Pidgeotto."  
"Any plan?"  
"Not really." Blue said, "I'll play it by ear"  
"Good luck."  
"I don't need it Red." Blue smirked, before spotting the gym trainer and getting up, "Smell ya later." Blue did his little two finger salute thing and walked over to the pool the gym trainer had picked out. Red followed so he could get a closer seat.  
"This will be a three on three battle between Challenger Blue Oak and Trainer Luis Yohei representing the Cerulean City Gym. The battle will continue until one side is defeated or if I see reason to end it prematurely. As the Challenger, you must select your pokemon first."  
"Pidgeotto! Come on out!"  
"Goldeen! Second badge Qualifier." Luis told the water type. "Battle, begin!"  
"Gust!"  
"Dive!"  
"Just wait it out." Blue said. There was a time limit on staying underwater against any pokemon that couldn't dive. Blue only had to wait a little bit before the goldeen popped up, and Pidgeotto immediately slammed it with a gust for the trouble.  
"Water pulse."  
"Dodge it!"  
"Dive."  
The two went on like that for a little. Goldeen would pop out firing off water pulses, and Pidgeotto would hit it with a gust in exchange. Pidgeotto dodged most of the attacks that came her way. Practice with Wartortle must have paid off.  
"Catch goldeen!" Blue ordered all of a sudden. Pidgeotto dove immediately, snatching goldeen in her talons almost as soon as the water type came out of the water.  
"Return." Luis said. Goldeen vanished immediately, and Pidgeotto looked a little glum about losing her catch. "Poliwag."  
"Return." Blue swapped pokeballs, "Rattata! Quick attack. Don't let it get to the edge of the platform!"  
"Water gun."  
"Dodge it!"  
"Dive."  
"Cut it off!"  
"Then water gun.  
"Then hyper fang!" Rattata slammed into Poliwag hard, and even though it did bite down, it couldn't trap the water type in its jaws. Poliwag bounced away and stumbled to its feet.  
"Bubble."  
"Weave through."  
"Stronger." Rattata ran in, and made it most of the way to poliwag before the second order came. He was stalled by the wall of bubbles and tried to turn around. The bubbles he'd passed by made that tricky though, and the moment's hesitation caused Rattata to take a water gun to the back.  
"Tata!" Rattata was knocked forward into the bubbles, and Red couldn't help but feel a bit of satisfaction at seeing Blue get hit by the same move he'd gotten Red with.  
"Rattata! Are you ok?"  
"Tatta..." Rattata got to shaky feet and shook his head.  
"Return." Blue said instantly. "Take a good rest, ok?" Blue put the pokeball back on his side, and poliwag jumped in the water. "Wartortle! Go drag them back out!"  
"Tortle!" The turtle pokemon dove into the water with a small splash.  
...  
...  
...  
Pure underwater battles were... boring... At least at this level. This match didn't warrant an underwater camera, so all they saw was the occasional splash of water and shadows.   
Blue leaned back a bit, fingering a pokeball. Red didn't remember seeing him do much practice with this. Bit of an oversight honestly. Everyone had practice fighting someone underwater except Wartortle.  
Luis shifted, keeping an eye on the water. Could he tell what was going on down there? Probably. Better than Red and Blue at the very least.  
There was a loud crash and a thud. Wartortle was back on land, a paw clutching poliwag's tail and trying desperately to pull the tadpole up. It used its feet to practically stand on the underside of the platform, eyes clenched at the struggle.  
"Water gun!" Two voices at the same time. Both attacks clashed, and the recoil put more strain on Poliwag's tail. Wartortle was stronger though, and its water gun slowly pushed forward until it slammed into poliwag. The tadpole's footing loosened, and it flew up, smacking Wartortle in the face and flying past him.  
"Get it!"  
"No need." Luis said. "Poliwag is unable to battle. Return. Goldeen."  
"Return. Pidgeotto, round two!"  
"Water pulse!"  
"Dodge it!" There was a bit of deja vu. The battle from early resumed almost exactly. Water pulses mostly missed Pidgeotto, Pidgeotto slammed gusts into the water's surface to punish the fish pokemon.   
"Catch it!" This time however, when Pidgeotto dived, so did goldeen. The flying type missed its prey, and when it glanced back it took a water pulse to the face.  
"Jiiiiii" Pidgeotto swayed to the side and almost flew into the barrier, before Blue returned it.  
"Confused huh? Fine, Wartortle finish it off!"  
"Tortle!"  
And back underwater they went. Now, Goldeen didn't have any reason to come back up. And it had access to pecks and horn attacks that Red knew were probably slamming into Wartortle. At least, that's what he assumed those shadows meant. He really couldn't tell anything for sure.  
"Wartortle hide in your shell!" Blue called into the water. Red knew what he meant by that now. Hopefully Wartortle heard him.  
...  
...  
...  
Luis glanced at the clock.  
...  
...  
...  
Blue looked back at Red, and got a helpless shrug.  
...  
...  
...  
A white glow came from the pool.  
Then the water came from the pool.   
All of a sudden the water shifted, a lance of it flying straight up high enough to draw a few looks from people and pokemon. The platform in the middle shifted and slammed into the barrier before slipping back down to land with what was the bottom now on top.  
And a goldeen unconscious on the edge.  
"Bide?" Luis asked.  
"Yup." Blue smirked.  
"Well Goldeen is clearly unable to battle." Luis said. "Come on out, Staryu!"  
"Water gun!"  
"Swift!" The swift stars went around the water gun to slam into Wartortle from all sides. The turtle pokemon hid in its shell and the star pokemon took the hit. Wartortle popped out of its shell and fired another water gun, before diving underwater. Staryu followed, spinning rapidly before slamming into Wartortle from behind(?) The turtle pokemon shot back to the surface and used water gun to block another wave of swift, before firing a water gun as staryu appeared from the water.  
"Psywave."  
"Water gun!"  
The psychic type attack ignored the water gun completely and slammed into Wartortle. The turtle staggered, and fell.  
"Wartortle is unable to battle. Please send out your next pokemon."  
"Pidgeotto quick attack!" Pidgeotto slammed into staryu, mind cleared from her break in the pokeball. Staryu flew back, before catching itself and firing a water gun.  
Blue hadn't had much experience in air to air combat either, Red noticed. Pidgeotto was doing fine, it wasn't nearly as different as water combat was, but the fact that attacks could come from above was definitely messing with the flying type a bit. Still, it was hitting hard with gusts and quick attacks. Staryu didn't show fatigue very well, but Red could see Pidgeotto starting to get tired, starting to breathe heavily.  
What was it with gym leaders having aces that didn't show how well you did? This wasn't even Misty's and it was ridiculous!  
"Pidgeotto dive!" Pidgeotto dove just in time to dodge a psywave, and converted that into enough speed to slam into staryu from below. The star pokemon flew up, before coming back down in a rapid spin that made it slam into the water. In order to escape it took a couple of gusts, but it just kept coming. Was it using recover somehow and Red couldn't see it or something?  
"Finish it off with psywave."  
"Dodge it! Full power quick attack!" Pidgeotto's wing was clipped by the psywave and her flight turned more into a semi-controlled crash with Staryu as the landing pad than an attack. Both pokemon hit the ground hard, and Pidgeotto rolled a few times before coming to a stop, unconscious.  
Staryu's gem flickered and dimmed.  
A, a draw?  
"Both Pidgeotto and Staryu are unable to battle." Luis said, returning his pokemon. Blue did the same, before Luis continued, "The winner of this battle is Challenger Blue Oak!"  
"What?" Blue said. "But it was a tie."  
"Rattata never fainted." Luis said, "You switched it out after it got back up."  
"But he said he was done."  
"But you didn't." Luis said, "Trainer or judge has to rule a pokemon unable to battle for it to count." Luis walked closer and said something that Red couldn't hear, before stepping back.  
"Congrats Blue."  
Blue took a moment to process, before smirking, "Of course I won." He said, "Was there ever a doubt?"  
"Yes."  
"Hey!" Blue pushed Red, and he laughed.  
"So Mr. Oak" Luis said, "Misty hosts challenges on Saturdays and Wednesdays. Do you want to sign up for either?"  
"Nah." Blue said, "I'm not quite ready."  
"Good choice." Luis said. "Whenever you're ready do let us know though."  
"Of course." Blue said. They split off from Luis and Red followed Blue towards the door.  
"Man, that was tougher than I expected." Blue said, "I'm just glad Wartortle heard me when I told him to use bide. Woulda been in big trouble if he just took that beating.  
"Yea." Blue barely won that one. Anything coulda cost him.  
"I'm gonna need to practice underwater battles definitely. Borrow a staryu or something."  
"Battle it in the air too."  
"Huh?"  
"Pidgeotto took some hits because of it."  
"I... Yea she did get hit a lot during that fight. I was too busy trying to figure out how to take staryu down, but that's something she needs to work on. Thanks Red."  
"You need all the help you can get."  
"Hey! At least I won!"  
"You had a head start. Give me a week."  
"Yea right. Magnemite isn't ready yet."  
"I've been figuring out training with them." Red argued, "Besides, a single battle gives them a lot less chances to get distracted."  
"Sure, right. And that'll solve everything?"  
"Nope. But it'll be enough to beat you."  
"Yea, sure." Blue said.  
"There's a tournament this week." Red said, "Just a small one, but it'll give us both a few chances to battle."  
"And you have another chance to lose?"  
"You won one time."  
"And I'm ahead of you in the gym challenge too."  
"And behind in team comp, oh, and Charmeleon evolved first."  
"It was by two seconds!"  
"Wartortle still wouldn't be evolved without the push."  
"Oh shut up! He was just trying to give you a chance to catch up."  
"He's a water type in a water focused gym. That it was close means you messed up Blue."  
"Bite me."  
The two bickered back and forth while waiting in line at the pokemon center, and they paused long enough to decide to get lunch before continuing. They stopped when the food got there, and when they finished eating Blue spoke up.  
"What kind of tournament?"  
"Single pokemon." Red said, "I want to get Magnemite and Machop some more experience."  
"Rattata kinda needs it too. Might be the push he needs to evolve. If there's water I can switch to Wartortle right?"  
Red nodded. "Then that settles it. Good chance to get some practice and make sure I'm ready to fight Misty soon. Give myself plenty of time to train in Vermillion while I'm waiting for you."  
"You'll need it. Your two strongest pokemon will get destroyed."  
"I'll work it out. Worst comes to worst I'll catch a ground type."  
"If that's what you have to do to overcome a roadblock. I like talent personally."  
"Hey!" Blue said, "Let's see if you keep saying that after the tournament."  
"I will. Don't worry."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoy this chapter! Posting Monday morning works a bit better than Tuesday for me, so I hope you guys don't mind if I swap it over permanently. I don't have much to say about this one, so I hope you all have a great day!  
> Next Chapter: Early Monday the 8th.


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